News

SIM² KU Leuven is delighted to announce that it has secured funding for a new ETN project focusing on the Remediation and Reprocessing of Sulfidic Mining Waste Sites. The project is called SULTAN. Targeted start date: 1-9-2018.

In the context of the EU Horizon 2020 MSCA-ETN REDMUD project, an international team of researchers have published one of the most detailed ever characterisation studies of the occurrence of scandium in Greek bauxite (residue).

In collaboration with Umicore, SIM² KU Leuven researchers investigated the thermal stability of the ionic liquid Cyphos IL 101 under various experimental conditions. The work was published in the journal Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.

In the framework of the ERC SOLCRIMET project SIM² KU Leuven researchers developed a versatile procedure to prepare phosphinate and phosphonate compounds, which are instrumental as solvent extraction reagents for multiple metals.

Euronews-Futuris has just released a new video on Enhanced Landfill Mining, featuring researchers from Montanuniversität Leoben and KU Leuven. The video offers new footage of the Closing the Circle ELFM case in Houthalen.

Researchers are invited to (pre)register for the ETN/EIT Summer School “To mine or not to mine: A multi-criteria assessment of the landfill mining of municipal and industrial solid waste deposits” (September 10-12, 2018, Leuven).

Dr. Siggi Wodarz works as a postdoc at SIM² KU Leuven in the context of the ERC Advanced Grant project SOLCRIMET (Prof. K. Binnemans). Siggi Wodarz investigates the electrodeposition of critical metals from non-aqueous solvents.

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.