The ION4RAW project aims to have an impact on the progress of by-product recovery activities. The replication and further commercialisation of the ION4RAW process are expected to be carried out after the project completion, contributing to enhancing the project impact in the medium to long term and setting the basis for an improved European sector, which can get the most out of its domestic resources in an effective way. In addition to the direct impact on metal exploitation and production rates, the use of the ION4RAW process will provide security of by-product supply, which will have a direct impact on all the technologies and processes that use them. This way, ION4RAW aims to position European mineral processing companies in the front line of by-product recovery technology as they will be able to use a technology that is more environmentally friendly, resource- and cost-efficient than conventional ionometallurgical processes.
The ION4RAW process is expected to be used by mining and mineral processing companies and will lead to broader and higher by-product recovery rates. Besides, the by-product potential mapping and the production of the toolkit to be used by companies will allow the identification of new unexploited resources. Additionally, thanks to the ION4RAW technology, today, unexploited resources could be transformed into reserves to be exploited by the application of the concept proposed here (as is planned for the case-study mineral processing companies).
ION4RAW process estimates a reduction in energy consumption with respect to pyro- and hydrometallurgical processes, together with low-cost, environmentally benign, non-flammable solvents (DES) instead of the use of strong acids (mainly sulphuric acid). This would lead to a healthier and safer process than a hydrometallurgical route and the reduction of both capital and operating expenditures (CAPEX and OPEX).
The ION4RAW process is expected to promote the expansion of the activities of mineral processing companies and, therefore, to create new jobs from diverse professional categories: construction workers, geologists, process engineers, plant operators, administrative staff, etc. Around a 5-10% increase in employment due to the impact of ION4RAW is expected in the long term. Besides, the dissemination plan of the project foresees the publication of 1 patent related to the project process, publications in journals with high impact factor, the creation of PhD positions during the project execution, attendance at industrial fairs, organisation of public events involving stakeholders and society, production of a video clip, brochures, internal and external newsletters, etc.
