IMPaCT

  This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730411.  

Title

Integrated Modular Plant and Containerised Tools for Selective, Low-impact Mining of Small High-grade Deposits

Concept

The current mining paradigm promotes extraction from large ‘world-class’ deposits that have required innovations in mining techniques to deal with low grades, large infrastructure to deal with high throughputs and large feasibility studies to prove long-term commercial viability. High investment in operations is no longer available in the current economic climate and many small companies have ceased to trade, concentrating production and limiting the ability of the raw materials market to respond to increased demand for raw materials or shortages in raw material supply. The problem is most extreme for critical raw materials that are produced in small quantities relative to traditional metal commodities because the potential return on investment is too low. The IMPaCT project proposes a solution that develops a new switch on-switch off (SOSO) mining paradigm to improve the viability of many critical metal and other small complex deposits.

The whole systems approach that we have adopted to realise the SOSO mining paradigm centres around technological innovations in mining equipment design and mine planning that would reduce the feasibility studies required, throughput of extracted material, infrastructure, land use, resource consumption and waste.

Participants

• The University of Exeter, United Kingdom (Coordinator)
• Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, France
• Mineco Limited, United Kingdom
• Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, United Kingdom
• Extracthive, France
• Global EcoProcess Services Oy, Finland
• Cymru Coal Limited, United Kingdom
• Rados International Services Ltd, United Kingdom
• Itä-Suomen yliopisto, Finland