In mid-May, the meeting corresponding to Month 24 of the European project “Ionometallurgy of primary sources for an enhanced raw materials recovery” (ION4RAW) was held, coinciding, therefore, with its equator. In addition, a workshop was also held where different technologies on circular economy and material recovery were exposed, trying to elucidate possible strategies for the exploitation of the project results. Due to the current situation, the meeting took place via videoconference.
During this first half of the project, the progress of the tasks corresponding to the different work packages has led to the mineralogical analysis of each of the mine material, as well as an extensive study on the DES-type solvents used for the extraction of the most valuable metals. Finally, the recovery of said DES has begun, as well as the isolation of said metals to proceed with their recovery.
Lurederra, for his part, explained the progress in the filtration and separation stage of DES from the remains of solid material from the mine, highlighting the completion of the extensive analysis of each of the initial solids from each of the mines. In addition, Lurederra also explained the different strategies to follow for the extraction of the most valuable metals from each of the leached mixtures, extending the previous knowledge acquired with SCOTGOLD materials to the rest of the mineralogical materials available.