Could “red mud” (bauxite residue) be the answer to some of Europe’s critical-metal supply concerns? That’s the central question addressed in the April 2016 EU MSCA-ETN REDMUD Policy Brief, authored by Dr. T. Baleomenos (Greece).

On March 29, 2018, the kick-off event for GloREIA took place in Brussels. GloREIA is to become a new, global association for the rare earth industry. To kickstart this association EIT RawMaterials provides financial support.

In the framework of the ERC SOLCRIMET project KU Leuven researchers have found that replacement of water by ethylene glycol provides enhanced selectivity in the solvent extraction of transitions metals from rare earth elements.

This new Hydrometallurgy paper by Kumar Batchu and Binnemans studies the effect of the diluent) on the solvent extraction of Nd using D2EHPA as extractant. Studied diluents varied from aliphatic, aliphatic-aromatic to aromatic.

Following their previous work on the rare-earth Balance Problem, Prof. Binnemans et al. have published a new (Golden Access) review paper in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy. The paper has been downloaded more than 700 times.

The ETN NEW-MINE project has just published a new Policy Brief on the future of Enhanced Landfill Mining in Europe and beyond. The Policy Brief draws Six Lessons Learned from the recent ELFM IV Symposium (February 5-6, 2018).

On March 9, 2018, Bieke Onghena (SIM² KU Leuven) obtained her PhD degree in Chemistry. She successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Ionic liquid solvent extraction (SX) for the recovery of rare earths (REEs) and cobalt (Co).

ETN SOCRATES and METGROW+ have published a joint Policy Brief on the Social License to Operate for the Mining and Recycling of Critical Metals, which is meant to stimulate this crucial debate for the EU mining/metallurgy sector.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are widely studied to recover metals from ores or end-of-life products, but not above 100 °C and atmospheric pressure. Here the IL [Hbet][Tf2N] was used dry to leach NdFeB magnets and scrap at high temperature.

Following the Social License to Operate Symposium in Leuven (Feb’ 21, 2018, Artefact), Dirk Draulans (a renowned science journalist), produced a three-page article for Knack, Flanders’ leading political (weekly) magazine.