A solution for recovering mining liabilities while reducing Europe’s reliance on imports
REECOVERY will help reduce reliance on imports of critical raw materials (CRMs), such as rare earths and cobalt, while also ensuring a stable supply chain that allows for deploying technologies required to meet climate neutrality goals. Besides, this project will help mining facilities comply with discharge restrictions, and aid in the environmental recovery of mining liabilities.
Aznalcóllar – Minera Los Frailes
Minera Los Frailes‘ site located in the Sevillian town of Aznalcóllar is where the developed solutions will be tested.
This organization plans to efficiently manage the contact water from the complex’s old mining liabilities, together with the large volumes (10 million m3) of acidic water containing metals, stored in an old open pit during years of inactivity over the last decades.
Context
The environmental recovery and valorization of old mining sites, together with the growing dependence on the market for the availability of critical raw materials, has required a paradigm shift in the mining sector towards a more circular model.
REECOVERY solution
REECOVERY is a model project with great potential for application, in which valuable by-products such as metal sulfides, rare earth oxalates and reclaimed water can be recovered and/or exploited with the consequent environmental valorization.
