On April 27 more than 220 people participated in the event “Can the recycling of mining waste become a new business?” Three experts from EC DG ENV, Boliden & Cronimet shared their views. Here are the main lessons learned...

SIM² researchers have succeeded in electrodepositing the rare earths neodymium & dysprosium at ambient temperatures from organic electrolytes. The paper was offered the front cover of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

SIM2 KU Leuven's Koen Binnemans and Peter Tom Jones published a Comment article “Rare-earth recycling needs market intervention” in Nature Reviews Materials (IF = 75). The paper was co-authored by magnet expert Paul McGuiness.

SOLVOMET/SIM² researchers have published a critical review paper in the high-impact journal “Chemical Reviews” on the oxidative dissolution of metals in organic solvents, which can offer a solution when aqueous systems fail.

Flanders Metals Valley, the catalyst for a vibrant, climate-neutral and circular metallurgical cluster in Flanders, will be launched on March 31. Stakeholders are warmly invited to get involved in this new, multi-actor organisation.

SOLVOMET/SIM2 KU Leuven researchers developed three methods to recover & purify Pd, Pt and Rh from spent autocatalysts. This work, which was performed in EU PLATIRUS, is featured in journal Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

SOLVOMET/SIM² researchers have enhanced the separation of neodymium and dysprosium by replacing the aqueous phase in their solvent extraction process largely by a green solvent. The work was published in ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng.

“The curse of 'white oil': electric vehicles' dirty secret” is the attention-grabbing headline of an in-depth article on lithium mining published in The Guardian (Dec’ 8, 2020). Peter Tom Jones (SIM², KU Leuven) reacts in this piece.

SIM² KU Leuven researchers have developed a process to deposit and strip magnesium metal from molten mixtures of solvate ionic liquids (SILs) and tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBACl) at 80 °C for use in rechargeable Mg batteries.

A joint team of SIM² KU Leuven/SOLVOMET & ArcelorMittal researchers have just published a critical review paper on the hydrometallurgical recovery of metals from steel industry by-products in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy.