Recovery of Critical and Strategic Raw Materials in mines with HPP

  circular economy | January 8, 2023

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newenergy

An innovative circular solution for the recovery of Critical and Strategic Raw Materials from mines, a crucial HPP process that manages to recover rare earths from mine drainage.

The energy transition is hungry for minerals and rare earths, global supply chains are exposed to an unprecedented level of stress and international tensions certainly do not calm the climate, triggering a rush to hoard raw materials throughout the world. This is the picture, and the recovery of Critical Raw Materials is now an almost obligatory path.

A path that Europe, for example, has decided to follow with its strategy on Critical Raw Materials. Introduced in 2020 and perfected the following year, it includes a chapter dedicated to the circular use of resources. And a study by Ohio State University also published in the journal Environmental Engineering Science goes precisely in the direction of the technological choices of HPP.

Circular Mines

Researchers from a well-known American university have studied a way to kill two birds with one stone: ensuring the recovery of critical raw materials from one of the most complex sources of pollution to manage, namely acid mine drainage. But HPP anticipated them and went far beyond the simple recovery of Critical Raw Materials from the drainage of contaminated water in mines, as after generating the Critical Raw Materials, it also generates hydrogen and clean energy with zero impact from the remaining material, and so Circular Mines come to life.

Mining sites, both open-air and underground, tend to be flooded by rainwater or groundwater infiltration. In the process, the water becomes contaminated with substances present in the mines, typically becomes an extremely acidic environment, and has a very negative impact on both ecosystems and human health.

It is a type of pollution that can last for decades and affect very large areas because it follows the surface and underground hydrography of the region in which it occurs. For this reason, drainage water must go through a purification process, but this purification must be able to communicate with HPP technology for the good of ecology and for the good of the local economy.

A new solution for the recovery of Critical Raw Materials

But this process can be harnessed to harvest all those lost and unused minerals and metals that have valuable uses in transition technologies. HPP has developed an even more innovative system that allows the processing of contaminated water and the recovery of rare earths and critical raw materials. “Rare earths like yttrium, for example, are necessary components of electronics, computers and other products that are used in everyday life today,” says Jeff Bielicki, associate professor of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering at John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University.

HPP treatment of acidic water does not require the use of new chemical substances, is less expensive for the green economy, and does not generate other waste materials that are harmful to the environment. The novelty of HPP technology also lies in its ability to recover Critical Raw Materials precisely from the results of the mines that pollute the aquifers and territories. Furthermore, in the phase following the recovery, it also manages to produce hydrogen and clean energy with zero impact which specifically manages to also recover from the sludge of water treatment plants by neutralizing the drainage waters and capturing the raw materials they contain.

The recovery of Critical and Strategic Raw Materials can save money, contribute to reducing pollution, generate employment in the circular economy and develop the territory.