Approach of processing steps for flotation tailings and process water reaches proof of concept stage within the challenge

Dr. Mathias Burisch has received the internationally renowned Waldemar-Lindgren-Award from the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) for his deposit research.

Rare Earth Elements (REE) are essential resources to ensure the energy transition, e-mobility and future ­techno­logies. The use of lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) provides a unique opportunity to conduct rapid and non-invasive exploration for REE even in ecologically sensitive areas and in relatively inaccessible locations. For the first time scientists from the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have directly identified and mapped REEs in both arid and subarctic environments using UAV-based hyperspectral data. They have now published their novel detection method in Nature Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74422-0).

Mainly driven by E-mobility the demand on and the waste by batteries increases. Therefore, the development of efficient recycling ­techno­logies and the integration of reco­vered materials into battery cell production is necessary. The aim is to close material cycles.

The Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology (HIF) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is now a member of the European Raw Material­s Alliance (ERMA). ERMA was founded in September 2020 and aims to secure the supply of critical raw materials and advanced materials in order to strengthen the stability and competitiveness of Europe.

B.Sc.-Student Anna Thielen and Dr.-Ing. Markus Buchmann have been awarded with the Heinrich-Schubert prize of the Faculty of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering of TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

O­ver a period of three years, the InSPECtor project, funded by the EIT RawMaterial­s, developed an integrated spectroscopic sensor system for laser-induced fluorescence and hyperspectral imaging. The integrated sensor system is also beneficial to other partners in the EIT RawMaterial­s community, especially those involved in the exploration and evaluation of raw material resources.

The main objective of this 4-year project is to demonstrate a patented novel industrial process to produce silicon (Si, a critical raw material), enabling a shift from today’s process to a far more environmentally and economically alternative: in SisAl Pilot quartz in slag is reduced though aluminothermic reduction that utilizes secondary raw materials such as aluminium (Al) scrap and dross, as replacements for carbon reductants used today.

Excellon Resources Inc. and HIF have come to an R&D agreement to team up in the Sil­ver City Project in Saxony, as announced in a press release from 9th June. Excellon will provide HIF with data and drill core samples through which HIF can test developing, cutting-edge exploration ­techno­logies in real time, including hyperspectral analysis of drill core.

A lot has happened at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) since the groundbreaking ceremony for the future metallurgy pilot plant in October 2018. After a little more than a year, the new 400 square ­meter glass facade of the plant reflects the blue spring sky. The outer shell of the technical center, which is right next to the institute building in the Chemnitzer Strasse, is now complete. In the upcoming days...

On March 3rd, Dr Christina Meskers commenced her appointment as a senior research fellow in the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), an institute of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). With her experience as former Senior Innovation Manager at Umicore a global materials technology and recycling group, she will help to build the newly established Department of Process Metallurgy. This department is ...

The firms SkyTEM and CGG Multi-Physics are currently testing new methods for environmentally friendly raw material exploration in the southern reference area of the EU project INFACT (Innovative, Non-Invasive and Fully Acceptable Exploration Techno­logies) in the Spanish region of Andalusia. Using a helicop­ter and an electromagnetic probe, they fly o­ver the area, co­vering approximately four hundred square kilo­meters. Utilizing the data collected, the INFACT researchers can subsequently check whether the sensors they used function as expected by comparing the results with the existing geological ­information. The INFACT project is coordinated by the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), an institute at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).