Sphalerite is a tricks­ter with the ability to incorporate a range of elements. Max Frenzel and Sam Thiele explain how sphalerite can be used to explore ore-forming environments.

Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, are omnipresent and have grown in popularity due to their wide potential use in many civilian sectors. Equipped with sophisticated sensors and communication devices, drones can potentially form a multi-UAV system, also called swarm. Scientists from the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) and the Cen­ter for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), both HZDR institutions, conducted experimental tests to set up a conceptual framework for an autonomous swarm with the specific task to efficiently scan unevenly structured environments. The tests have shown that the developed swarming concept is more resilient compared to others.

The International Mineral Processing Council (IMPC) is the world's leading organization for representatives from science and industry involved in the processing of raw materials. At its congress in October 2024, the IMPC elected Dr. Martin Rudolph as the sole representative of the EU to the Council. Rudolph heads the Processing Department at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF). The Freiberg processing specialist was also elected Chairman of the Mineral Processing Commission.

Plastics make up around a quar­ter of the materials contained in electronic waste (e-waste). The proportion that is recycled is com­paratively low - the majority is simply incinerated. The first step to improve recycling is the identification of polymer materials, so that they can be selectively sorted and processed in a way that preserves their function. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), an institute of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), have now succeeded in determining the specific characterization of the main e-waste plastic types by combining multiple sensors. Applied on an industrial scale, more plastics can be optimally processed and returned to the production chain.

Three recent studies conducted with the collaboration of the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, an institute of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), show significant progress in monitoring mining areas. At the same time, the researchers advocate the ethically guided use of artificial intelligence (AI) for Earth observation in terms of environmental protection and disas­ter prevention. Furthermore, they also have developed an AI-supported model that incorporates data obtained through remote sensing. That might represent a major step for the Earth observation community.

Dr. Soniya Dhiman has been a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) since March 2024. The Indian researcher is working in the biotechnology department of the HZDR Institute on the development of ­techno­logies for the economic and ecological reco­very of indium, gallium and germanium from industrial waste. The scholarship from the European Marie-Skłodowska-Curie funding program supports researchers holding a PhD who wish to carry out their research activities abroad, acquire new skills and develop their careers in order to achieve excellence in research.

The Freiberg team gained the second place in a challenge organized by a Canadian mining company for its innovative approach to predicting further gold and copper ore bodies around the Chelopech Mine.

The Freiberg.Science.City initiative was launched at the Long Night of Science and Industry on May 25, 2024, bringing together people from science, industry and the city to promote Freiberg as a science location - motto: get active together and shape a cosmopolitan, sustainable and future-proof Freiberg!

The Helmholtz Association awarded Dr. Lukas Körber and Dr. Anna Vanderbruggen its doctoral prizes in the fields of mat­ter and energy in Berlin on Monday, April 29. They received the prizes for their outstanding doctoral theses, which they completed at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology at HZDR. In her research approach, Vanderbruggen uses a proven method to return the graphite from used batteries, which has hardly been recycled to date, to the material cycle. Körber's work contributes to a deeper understanding of ­magnetic spin waves, which are significant for various future ­techno­logies. The prize is endowed with 5,000 euros. Additionally, the Helmholtz Association supports stays abroad of up to six months with a monthly grant of 2,000 euros.

Lithium-ion batteries have become an integral part of e­veryday life. The number of used batteries is correspondingly high. They contain considerable amounts of important raw materials such as graphite. Recycling this mineral for being reused for new batteries with the same performance is an important goal. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm and the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have now demonstrated that a graphite recycling technology is successful as intended. In tests, the purified graphite showed excellent capacity retention com­parable to pristine commercial anode-grade graphite.

The EXCITE project (Electron and X-ray microscopy community for structural and chemical imaging techniques for Earth materials) has been bringing together the most important national and regional electron and X-ray microscopy facilities with European researchers from academia and industry at European level for four years in order to ensure their optimal use and joint development. Funding for the EXCITE network, in which the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) of the HZDR also provides its equipment, has now been extended under the name EXCITE² for four years by the European Union (EU). With a clear focus on the EU's sustainability goals, the microscopy equipment will now be available to researchers from all disciplines from April 2024 instead of just geoscientists.

The HIF scientists Prof. Jens Gutzmer, Dr. Raimon Tolosana-Delgado, Dr. Lucas Pereira and Dr. Max Frenzel explain in their articles as guest editors the fundamental concepts relevant to Geometallurgy. Furthermore, the magazine review how current geometallurgical research is opening up opportunities for geoscientists to generate bet­ter economic and environmental outcomes for the global raw materials industry as part of a sustainable economy.