
Key Enabler for a Sustainable Circular Economy of Minerals and Metals
The Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) pursues the objective of developing innovative technologies for the economy so that mineral and metalliferous raw materials can be made available and used more efficiently and recycled in an environmentally friendly manner.
The institute is a constituent part of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. It researches in the Resource Technology Topic within the Energy Efficiency, Materials, and Resources Program of the Helmholtz Association. HIF works in close collaboration with TU Bergakademie Freiberg and is a core member of the European EIT RawMaterials network, having played a decisive role in its establishment.
News
Recycle high-tech waste biologically: Innovative biotechnological process extracts gallium from industrial wastewater
Gallium is a rare metal, but it is widely used in the high-tech industry. This extreme contrast makes recycling indispensable. However, current recycling processes are costly and chemically polluted. Biotechnological approaches, therefore, rely on peptides, as they are able to bind metallic particles, minerals and metal ions in an environmentally friendly manner and to differentiate them in a targeted manner. Scientists at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf have now shown (DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125366), that peptide-based material can be used for the extraction of gallium from production wastewater caused by the semiconductor industry.
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Events
Recycling mining waste, a new business?, 27.04.2021
Can the recycling of mining waste become a new business? That is the main question to be addressed in the Lunch Event & Debate on April 27th, 2021. The event co-hosted by several EU funded remining projects aims to present novel solutions for the treatment of mining waste to stakeholders from ...
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Activities
FineFuture
The FineFuture project researches new ways to exploit the recovery of fine particle fractions in metalliferous raw materials. Separating very fine particles is important for the valorization of multiple mineral resources, for example nickel, kaolin, feldspar, talc and magnesite. With a particular focus on froth flotation, the project aims at enabling the development of groundbreaking technologies in the raw materials sector.
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Latest Publication
Study of the Influence of the Crystallographic Orientation of Cassiterite Observed with Colloidal Probe Atomic Force Microscopy
and its Implications for Hydrophobization by an Anionic Flotation Collector
Haosheng Wu, Axel D. Renno, Yann Foucaud, and Martin Rudolph
ACS Omega 2021, 6, 6, 4212–4226
SisAl Pilot: Improving the environmental footprint of silicon production (Project video)
