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EU H2020 FAME PROJECT: MINERAL PROCESSING SOLUTIONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY","the-eu-h2020-fame-project-mineral-processing-solutions-for-the-21st-century","article/the-eu-h2020-fame-project-mineral-processing-solutions-for-the-21st-century",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":560,"content":570,"excerpt":778,"featured":50,"reporter":779,"_editable":783,"component":784,"seo_title":553,"categories":785,"visibility":792,"author_company":49,"featured_image":793,"seo_description":778,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":798,"formattedArticleDate":799},"95d877fa-72a3-47d0-92e0-73fb7d23134c","2019-05-12 00:00",[],[561],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":564},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":565,"image":566,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":567},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":571,"content":572},"doc",[573,580,585,590,595,600,605,612,617,622,627,632,637,644,651,654,659,666,671,674,679,684,691,698,701,706,713,720,727,734,743,750,755,760,765,770],{"type":574,"attrs":575,"content":576},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[577],{"text":578,"type":579},"This feature explores a European Union (EU) collaboration looking to develop the EU’s mineral processing facilities to bring them in line with the demands of modern industrial developments. By C P Broadbent and K Oliver of Wardell Armstrong International Ltd","text",{"type":574,"attrs":581,"content":582},{"textAlign":49},[583],{"text":584,"type":579},"FAME was a first-generation Horizon 2020 EU funded research and innovation project looking at Flexible And Mobile Economic Mineral Processing (FAME) designed to facilitate the commercial exploitation of European skarn, greisen and pegmatite deposits.",{"type":574,"attrs":586,"content":587},{"textAlign":49},[588],{"text":589,"type":579},"The FAME Consortium comprised 17 beneficiaries from 7 different EU28 states. It commenced on 1 January 2015 and ended on 31 December 2018.",{"type":574,"attrs":591,"content":592},{"textAlign":49},[593],{"text":594,"type":579},"FAME test work was carried out on six reference ores, we have listed two examples of each of the ore types:",{"type":574,"attrs":596,"content":597},{"textAlign":49},[598],{"text":599,"type":579},"Scouting and bench scale mineral processing test work led to pilot plant testing of two, innovative process flow sheets:",{"type":574,"attrs":601,"content":602},{"textAlign":49},[603],{"text":604,"type":579},"Both pilot plant campaigns were undertaken at TRL 6/7.",{"type":574,"attrs":606,"content":607},{"textAlign":49},[608,610],{"text":609,"type":579},"The Gonçalo pilot plant test work successfully demonstrated that production",{"text":611,"type":579},"of Li-mica concentrates suitable for the conversion to lithium compounds for use in lithium ion batteries.",{"type":574,"attrs":613,"content":614},{"textAlign":49},[615],{"text":616,"type":579},"The Tellerhäuser pilot plant test work successfully produced tin concentrates appropriate for primary smelting. Indeed, interest of a local tin smelter operating currently, exclusively on secondary tin production, could return primary smelting to Europe after a gap of more than two decades.",{"type":574,"attrs":618,"content":619},{"textAlign":49},[620],{"text":621,"type":579},"Background",{"type":574,"attrs":623,"content":624},{"textAlign":49},[625],{"text":626,"type":579},"In 2008 the EU launched a “Raw Materials Initiative” with the aim to secure sustainable supplies of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials. An integrated strategy was established to boost resources efficiency and recycling, ensure a level playing field in access to resources in third countries and foster sustainable supply from European sources.",{"type":574,"attrs":628,"content":629},{"textAlign":49},[630],{"text":631,"type":579},"The EU recognised also that many of the raw materials vital to European industry were reliant upon importation from outside the EU28 with China dominating the production of many of these commodities. In 2010 the EU published a list of 14 Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) which was updated to 20 CRMs in 2017 and extended to 27 CRMs in 2017. The current CRM list is shown in Table 1 below.",{"type":574,"attrs":633,"content":634},{"textAlign":49},[635],{"text":636,"type":579},"It is notable that lithium does not satisfy the ‘criticality’ test and is currently not one of the 27 CRMs. This is due principally to its relative abundance; however, it is regarded by the EU as a key strategic metal.",{"type":574,"attrs":638,"content":639},{"textAlign":49},[640,642],{"text":641,"type":579},"One of the EU28 responses to the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 was a recommitment towards industry within Europe and in 2011 the EU heads of state and government called on the European Commission to bring together all the",{"text":643,"type":579},"previous EU Research and Innovation (R&I) funding into a single common strategic framework. Horizon 2020 became the biggest EU R&I funding programme ever, with nearly 80 billion Euros of funding available over seven years (2014-2020) and is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness.",{"type":574,"attrs":645,"content":646},{"textAlign":49},[647,649],{"text":648,"type":579},"FAME (Flexible and Mobile Economic Mineral Processing) was one of the initial cohort of Horizon 2020 projects with funding commencing on 1 January 2015 (7.4 million Euros) and was one of the first projects that was part of the H2020 Societal Challenge, ‘climate action, environment,",{"text":650,"type":579},"resource efficiency and raw materials’ (Societal Challenge 5). FAME was a mineral processing R&I project which was industry driven and the FAME consortium comprised European mineral developers, technical and research orientated small and medium sized enterprises, research institutes, academia and raw materials networking companies. The Consortium Partners are show in Table 2.",{"type":574,"attrs":652,"content":653},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":574,"attrs":655,"content":656},{"textAlign":49},[657],{"text":658,"type":579},"FAME’S scope",{"type":574,"attrs":660,"content":661},{"textAlign":49},[662,664],{"text":663,"type":579},"FAME was established to increase the competitiveness of European enterprises developing mining and mineral processing operations based on skarn, pegmatite or greisen ore bodies within the EU28. The",{"text":665,"type":579},"project focussed on ore type rather than a specific commodity as these three ore types are relatively common through Europe and contain many of the CRMs and lithium. The aim was to stimulate private investment in the European mining sector and help maintain key mineral processing skills and expertise within the EU28. This latter point was regarded as crucial as many metallurgical and mineral processing skills were in danger of being lost to Europe. The contraction of the European mining industry since WW2 had led to the closure of not only metallurgical plants in Europe but also many of the schools and universities where disciplines such as mineral processing were taught.",{"type":574,"attrs":667,"content":668},{"textAlign":49},[669],{"text":670,"type":579},"One of the principal reasons why skarns, pegmatites and greisens were chosen as ore types to work on in the FAME programme was that they were relatively abundant in Europe and often relatively small scale but mineralogically complex and, hence, most approriate to flexible and mobile mineral processing strategies. Furthermore, the European examples of these ore types were known to contain a number of CRMs, giving FAME a CRM focus, thereby supporting directly other EU initiatives.",{"type":574,"attrs":672,"content":673},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":574,"attrs":675,"content":676},{"textAlign":49},[677],{"text":678,"type":579},"FAME was a 4-year project commencing 1 January 2015 and the grant ended on 31 December 2018. An overview of the Project is presented in Figure 2. FAME delivered mineral processing flowsheets that can enable the exploitation of European ore deposits in an environmentally acceptable manner.",{"type":574,"attrs":680,"content":681},{"textAlign":49},[682],{"text":683,"type":579},"Test work was carried out on six reference ores (see Figure 3). These comprised two examples of each of the three principal ore types. Although bespoke flow sheets were developed to unlock the mineral potential of the actual ores, it was always envisaged that the mineral processing strategies that were developed should be sufficiently flexible so that generic solutions could be applied to other, similar ore deposits.",{"type":574,"attrs":685,"content":686},{"textAlign":49},[687,689],{"text":688,"type":579},"A number of tentative mineral processing",{"text":690,"type":579},"flow sheets were developed but the culmination of the FAME project has been to undertake pilot plant test work at TLR6/7(4) on two different ores:",{"type":574,"attrs":692,"content":693},{"textAlign":49},[694,696],{"text":695,"type":579},"The FAME Work Package (WP) 2 consisted of detailed mineralogical characterisation",{"text":697,"type":579},"and chemical analysis of the ores and was a precursor to all subsequent process test work. WP3 dealt with bench scale processing of skarn and pegmatite ores whereas WP4 dealt with bench scale test work on greisen ores. WP5 essentially extended this work to larger scale, demonstration activities (the pilot plant test work) bringing the work closer to commercialisation.",{"type":574,"attrs":699,"content":700},{"textAlign":49},[],{"type":574,"attrs":702,"content":703},{"textAlign":49},[704],{"text":705,"type":579},"FAME results",{"type":574,"attrs":707,"content":708},{"textAlign":49},[709,711],{"text":710,"type":579},"The significance of lithium as a battery metal vital to the implementation of the electrification of vehicles grew dramatically",{"text":712,"type":579},"since the submission of the FAME proposal in 2014. As FAME was the only H2020 Raw Materials project dealing with the upstream production of lithium the FAME Steering Committee concluded that one of the principal demonstration projects within FAME should revolve around the production of lithium mineral concentrates. Three of the six FAME reference ores can be regarded as potential lithium resources. Indeed, FAME partner Keliber hopes to produce a lithium spodumene mineral concentrate from their own mine in 2021(5).",{"type":574,"attrs":714,"content":715},{"textAlign":49},[716,718],{"text":717,"type":579},"Pilot scale production of lithium mica (lepidolite) concentrates containing up to 5.0% (m/m) lithium oxide (Li2O) has been undertaken successfully by LNEG(6) using",{"text":719,"type":579},"a development of the generic mineral processing concept for processing lithium bearing hard rock minerals developed by the FAME programme (see Figure 4).",{"type":574,"attrs":721,"content":722},{"textAlign":49},[723,725],{"text":724,"type":579},"FAME Partner GBM derived preliminary OPEX and CAPEX figures for a 1Mtpa and a 350,000 tpa mineral processing plant. CAPEX was estimated at approximately 75M USD and 40M USD respectively with OPEX between 150-350 USD/t (towards the upper estimate for the smaller plant). The MOTA Group (owner of the Gonçalo licence) is evaluating currently whether to expand their business portfolio to include Li-mica production. Whether this happens is likely to be dependent largely upon the availability of conversion plants to convert the mineral",{"text":726,"type":579},"concentrate into lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide within an economically viable distance. Currently there are no such facilities within EU28 and such facilities will be required in future should the electrification of vehicles proceed as anticipated and European automobile manufacturers wish to retain some security of supply by having a proportion of battery materials (and/or the batteries produced in Europe rather than relying on 100% importation from China.",{"type":574,"attrs":728,"content":729},{"textAlign":49},[730,732],{"text":731,"type":579},"The Tellerhäuser deposit is a polymetallic skarn hosted deposit in the Western Erzgebirge in Saxony, Germany. It hosts tin, zinc, indium, copper, iron, silver and gallium. The deposit was explored extensively in the late 1960s to late 1980s by SDAG Wismut a",{"text":733,"type":579},"Soviet-East German joint venture focussed on uranium mining. This exploration concluded with the statement that due to the complex mineralogy the ores were difficult, if not impossible to process viably. Saxore Bergbau GmbH (SBG) is a German registered company set up to hold Anglo Saxony Mining’s (ASM’s) project in Germany.",{"type":574,"attrs":735,"content":736},{"textAlign":49},[737,739,741],{"text":738,"type":579},"The main focus of SBG is the Tellerhäuser",{"text":740,"type":579},"Project. SBG is a partner in FAME as well as a German nationally funded project (AFK). In 2018 FAME, AFK and SBG formed a unique research alliance to bundle ideas, results, work force, finances and know-how to create additional benefit for all parties. The results of this collaboration were to create an industrial scale pilot plant at UVR-FIA in Freiberg, Saxony, with UVR-FIA",{"text":742,"type":579},"joining the FAME Consortium formally in mid 2018. The pilot plant campaign lasted until early December 2018 and the analysis and interpretation of all the data generated in the test work is still under way.",{"type":574,"attrs":744,"content":745},{"textAlign":49},[746,748],{"text":747,"type":579},"However, M Roscher, MD of SBG concluded at the FAME Closure Conference in London in December 2018 that the FAME-AFK collaboration had resulted in the successful",{"text":749,"type":579},"production of marketable tin concentrate with the co-recovery of sulphides (zinc and copper) and magnetite. Indeed, the statement that the Tellerhäuser ore was “too difficult” to process had, with the application of modern, flexible mineral processing technologies, been shown to be incorrect.",{"type":574,"attrs":751,"content":752},{"textAlign":49},[753],{"text":754,"type":579},"Impact and conclusions",{"type":574,"attrs":756,"content":757},{"textAlign":49},[758],{"text":759,"type":579},"FAME has delivered significant impact to the European mining and minerals sectors. This was recognised in July 2018 when the FAME consortium was awarded the IOM3 Medal for Excellence for “significant contributions to the art and science of mineral processing over a number of years”.",{"type":574,"attrs":761,"content":762},{"textAlign":49},[763],{"text":764,"type":579},"The output for FAME has been considerable with over 20 published papers (with more in the pipeline) and presentations at over 20 International Conferences (in Europe, Asia and the Americas). Furthermore, FAME has helped maintain key mining and metallurgical skills within Europe.",{"type":574,"attrs":766,"content":767},{"textAlign":49},[768],{"text":769,"type":579},"FAME has had a strong impact on SMEs within and associated with the FAME Consortium, having:",{"type":574,"attrs":771,"content":772},{"textAlign":49},[773],{"text":774,"type":579,"marks":775},"The authors would like to thank all members of the FAME Consortium for their efforts over the last four years, and the EU for the provision of a Grant (No. 641650) under the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and innovation Programme.",[776],{"type":777},"italic","This feature explores a European Union (EU) collaboration looking to develop the EU’s mineral processing facilities to bring them in line with the demands of modern industrial developments. By C P Broadbent and K Oliver of Wardell Armstrong International Ltd FAME was a first-generation Horizon 2020 EU funded research and innovation project looking at Flexible […]",[780],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":781},{"job_title":565,"image":782,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},{"filename":567},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"95d877fa-72a3-47d0-92e0-73fb7d23134c\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[786,789],{"slug":787,"name":788},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":790,"name":791},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":794,"name":794,"focus":794,"title":794,"source":794,"filename":795,"copyright":794,"fieldtype":796,"meta_data":797,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/bc216f778e/bm-screen-shot-2019-05-12-at-063440-e1557639353220.png","asset",{"alt":794,"title":794,"source":794,"copyright":794},"May 12, 2019","12th May 2019",[],[],1792773943034]