Report from 3rd MIN-NOVATION Baltic Network meeting in Finland

Project name:

MIN-NOVATION Mining and Mineral Processing Waste Management Innovation Network

3^rd MIN-Novation Baltic Network meeting

November 21 – November 24, 2011
Vuokatti/Finland

Host organization

Kainuun Etu

1.    Welcome and meeting agenda

Antti Toivanen, CEO of Kainuun Etu Ltd., welcomed the meeting participants, and spoke briefly about the R&D, industrial and tourist opportunities available in the Kainuu region.

2.    Guest presentations – Professor Manuel Regueiro and Harry Sandström

Highlights from Professor Manuel Regueiro’s presentation:

Ø  “Mining is primarily a waste management business”. Improved waste management can lead to increased profits and project viability in the case of new developments.

Ø  One of the main goals of the EU Raw Materials Initiative is to enhance the recycling of raw materials and resource efficiency.

Ø  The European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources has as one of its target research areas the development of an industrial network on waste prevention and recycling aimed at turning wastes into products, including new technological processes for the treatment of complex waste, such as dust, tailings and residues. The Platform also is interested in effective approaches to protecting ground and surface water quality, including novel ways of treating acid mine drainage and recovering contained metals.

Ø  The Innovation Partnership’s 2020 targets include developing new European-based recycling activities (mostly run by SMEs) and demonstrating 10 innovative pilot plants for raw materials extraction and processing and recycling.

Ø  The European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources, The Innovation Partnership and the EU Raw Materials Initiative are guided by the same overarching objective which is to ensure that the supply of minerals for European industry is secured, both in terms of domestic extraction and foreign supply.

Highlights from Harry Sandström’s presentation:

Ø  Finland’s Green Mining Programme aims to minimise the adverse impacts of mining, improve the productivity, RDI and know-how in the mining sector.

Ø  The beneficiaries of the Programme are businesses as well as research organisations

Ø  Some of the eligibility criteria include international R&D partners (for public research projects) and SME involvement (in business-led projects). Right now, Sweden and Australia have been identified as the priority countries cooperating on this Programme.

Ø  A 60 mln € budget for 2011-2016, funding available as grants (businesses and R&D organisations) or as loans (to businesses).

Ø  As of September 2011, Finland has 9 metal mines in operation, 3 metal mines under construction, ca. 30 mines/quarries for industrial minerals in operation.

Ø  Exploration for new mining sites in Finland generated 60,9 mln € in 2010; there were >500 exploration permit applications in September 2011.

Ø  Turnover of the mining sector in Finland totalled 1,16 bln €; of that, 680 mln are metal mines.

3.    MBN meeting - MRN Meetings

Summaries of the presentations on MRN activities follow:

a.    AGH, UPPER SILESIAN AGENCY FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROMOTION and the FOUNDATION FOR LOWER SILESIAN MINERAL RESOURCES CLUSTER: Justyna Adamczyk informed that the 3^rd MRN meeting focused on two issues: new technologies and waste products as a result of public-private cooperation between mining waste management companies in the region AND the rules and regulations governing the waste-to-product process. A guest speaker from the Gliwice County government guided the participants through the tangle of national regulations on this topic.

b.    EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION OF SAXONY-ANHALT (BDU): The 3^rd MRN meeting identified 5 potential recyclable residues. Stefan Kreisel also informed that the participants also agreed that a master plan for the industrial use of these residues will be drawn up. BDU in another EU-funded project (ReSource) is pursuing the topic of geothermal usage of mining waters, and plans to advance this topic in MIN-NOVATION (a geo-thermal working group has already been created for this purpose during the 1^st/2^nd MRN meeting).

c.    TALLINN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY held the 3^rd MRN meeting on October 20th. Veiko Karu noted that invited lecturers dealt with a variety of topics: copper industry waste, chemical analysis of mineral components and current trends in mining engineering. There was also a presentation on SANDVIK – crushing and sieving equipment offered by the Actual Baltic OU company. A discussion ensued about the various options for the pilot project in Estonia.

d.    KAINUUN ETU and OULU UNIVERSITY: Hanna Repo related the results of the 3^rd/4^th MRN meeting (November 9^th), which gave an introduction to R&D in the field of mining waste management, classification of mining waste and information on the pilot project – the mobile stone and extractive laboratory unit. It was decided that in January an R&D funding workshop will be organised which will familiarise businesses with funding opportunities available in Finland. The end of 2012 will see a workshop on legal aspects of the mining waste management business. Prof. Seppo Gehor explained that Oulu University has carried out background research on the adsorbent properties of a selection of minerals – this work is done in preparation for the pilot project.    

e.    UNIVERSITY OF STAVANGER: Jan Frick emphasised that key feedback at the MRN has come from large oil companies which have led the way in developing petroleum waste management solutions. He hopes that these best practices may be of value in the mining waste sectors in the MIN-NOVATION regions. Torleiv Bilstad has met with county and national officials to engage them on the topics dealt with in the MIN-NOVATION project. 

f.     UNIVERSITY OF ÖREBRO and ÖREBRO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL: As summarised by Mattias Bäckström, the 3^rd MRN meeting took place on October 11^th and was combined with a study trip to a nearby Stråssa Mineral & Makadam AB mine. Alongside business-unfriendly legislation and the need for cheaper transportation as a vehicle for more cost-effective mining waste management, the participants identified specific tasks to get done: 1. more comprehensive information on waste deposit (content, value etc.) 2. more publicity among businesses on the importance of characterising waste prior to use. 3. more publicity targeting local authorities with the message that not all mine waste is detrimental to health and environment.

4.    MBN meeting - SME database 

Veiko Karu presented an overview of the planned Baltic SME database. Data has been gathered thus far for 570 mining waste management businesses from the 6 MIN-NOVATION countries. Veiko presented the type of outputs that the final database could offer (table on web; PDF outputs on web; interactive database).

5.    MBN meeting - Work Package 4

Mattias Bäckström outlined the tasks to be completed in WP4. The work package officially began in October 2011 and will go on until December 2012. Mattias focused on the first task – compendium on mining waste management. Each partner needs to start gathering information on the waste streams, processing methods, product types and customer categories for the businesses involved in the MRN and those in the region. Within two weeks Mattias will send templates to gathering those information. Another necessary step to make the compendium a reality is to make a preliminary inventory of the type of mineral waste present in the region (volume, content etc.). Finally a literature review and references. Mattias provided a sample waste inventory and categorisation in his presentation.

6.    MBN meeting - Communications

Piotr Szmigielski gave an overview of select communication issues. 

7.    Project Steering Committee – Introduction

Professor Marek Cała chaired the Project Steering Committee and announced the agenda. Professor Marek Cała reviewed the financial and essential progress of each of the partners. 

8.    Next meeting

The next project meeting will take place in Stavanger, Norway on April 25-27 and will be hosted by the University of Stavanger.

9. Meeting adjournment

The project meeting was concluded on Tuesday evening, and followed by tours on Wednesday of the Mobile Laboratory Unit of Kajak, the Centre for Measurement and Information Systems (CEMIS) and the Talvivaara Mining Company.

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MIN-NOVATION Mining and Mineral Processing Waste Management Innovation Network
http://mi.ttu.ee/min-novation/