Report from 2nd MIN-NOVATION Baltic Network meeting, 27.09.2011

Project name:

MIN-NOVATION Mining and Mineral Processing Waste Management Innovation Network

Report from the 2^nd MIN-Novation Baltic Network meeting – Lutherstadt Eisleben, Germany

Between 21 – 23 September 2011 within the framework of Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013 in Educational Institution of Employers Association of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany took place the 2^nd MIN-NOVATION Baltic Network (MBN) meeting.

From MBN meeting Germany, 21-23 September 2011

1.    Welcome speeches and meeting agenda

The MIN-NOVATION project team was welcomed to by dr. Lutz Koch, vice president and CFO of the Educational Institution of Employers Association of Saxony-Anhalt (BdU). Next, the president of BdU, Mr. Hauschild, delivered a presentation on the mission and work of the BdU. Piotr Piwowarczyk followed with an overview of the meeting agenda.

2.    MBN meeting

Veiko Karu of TUT, WP3 leader, introduced the goals of this round of the MBN. The aim was to take stock of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each MIN-NOVATION region, and try to find common issues in each category which can be elaborated on and be the focus of cross-regional collaboration and synergy in WP4 and beyond. To remind everyone about regional specificities and give an update on work performed by the MIN-NOVATION regional networks, each partner gave a presentation on their region and summarized the results of the SWOT analyses performed in the regions.

The highlights of these presentations were:

a.    TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY: Estonia’s minerals sector is well developed and internationally recognized; however, there aren’t many incentives for managing mining waste and regulations don’t yet reflect the recognition of the value of mining waste as a resource that can be used and re-used.

b.    KAINUUN ETU: The mining sector has received a boost with the launching of the Green Mining Programme. The sector itself is in good shape (new mines are being opened, international interest), although there is little in the way of cooperation between various sectoral stakeholders and thus far sustainability and mining life-cycle analysis have not been emphasized enough.

c.    UPPER SILESIAN AGENCY FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROMOTION on behalf of three project regions: Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia and Małopolska: A large amount of  mining waste and processing tailings is accumulated in landfills, waiting to be utilized. However, there are considerable legal and procedural hurdles which hamper business development in the area of mining waste management. Business development agencies need to do a better job of helping entrepreneurs and future business owners deal with the applicable laws and regulations.

d.     ÖREBRO REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL: a strong regional market exists for crushed rock and closed mines represent an untapped resource for raw materials and new products. Concerns about the environmental impact of post-mining mineral recovery operations (including toxic materials entering the environment), the perception of historic waste as regional heritage to be preserved and not exploited, a legal and permitting environment, and the NIMBY syndrome all contribute to slowing down the process of regional development through mining waste management.  

e.    EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION OF SAXONY-ANHALT: despite the fact that a number of social and demographic factors are impacting the development perspectives of the Mansfeld-Südharz district, opportunities exist for job creation in the mining waste sector. Exploitation of copper mining residues is one source of growth, as is the use of the geothermal use of mining water. One of the challenges is to get the regional R&D centres on board to help drive economic opportunity in mining waste management. 

f.     UNIVERSITY OF STAVANGER: a thriving petroleum sector in the Rogaland county has created waste management issues related to the disposal and re-use of waste material coming from petroleum recovery. Management of waste from zinc and titanium mining operations poses an additional challenge.

To facilitate the creation of a Baltic SWOT focused on the mining waste management sector, Veiko Karu split the participants into four groups, each group dealing with cross-regional issues which can be understood as common strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats.

The result was a draft Baltic SWOT. This draft document will serve as a basis for the preparation of a unified BSR report on key factors affecting growth and sustainability in the mining waste development sector.

3.    SME catalogues

Veiko Karu presented an overview of the planned Baltic SME database and asked for input as to the layout, graphical user interface and expected functionality of the database. He noted the possibility of combining Excel and Access databases in this effort and showed a demo of what the SME database could involve. Piotr Piwowarczyk reminded the attendees to focus first and foremost on getting a list of SMEs from the region addressed in the project, while welcoming the idea of expanding the list to involve SMEs from the mining waste management sector active outside of the region as added value. 

4.    Other issues

Mattias Bäckström gave an introduction to WP4, which will focus on analysing the state of the art in mining waste management and finding paths to closer cooperation between innovation sources and SMEs. WP4 activities formally begin in October 2011.

5.    Meeting adjournment

The project meeting was concluded on Thursday afternoon, and followed by tours on Thursday evening of the Wettelrode tourist mine and on Friday morning - the former smelting plant at Helbra and the Mansfeld Museum.

Wettelrode mine:

From MBN meeting Germany, 21-23 September 2011

Smelting plant at Helbra

From MBN meeting Germany, 21-23 September 2011

6.    Next meeting

The next project meeting will take place in Vuokatti, Finland on November 21-24 and will be hosted by Kainuun Etu.

View all

Get your own

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

MIN-NOVATION Baltic Region meeting in Germany, 21...23 septemer 2011

From TUT Department of Mining will be represented by teaching assistant Veiko Karu and specialists Raili Kukk and Ain Anepaio

 

MIN-NOVATION is a European Union Baltic Sea Region project “Mining and Mineral Processing Innovation Network for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises in Waste Technologies”. Project partners are from Poland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia.

 

MIN-NOVATION project is part R&D activity in Department of Mining and is related to the study of “Conditions of sustainable mining”, GRANT7499 - mi.ttu.ee/ETF7499; „Backfilling and waste management in Estonian oil shale industry“, GRANT8123 - mi.ttu.ee/ETF8123

Additional information

Veiko Karu, Department of Mining

veiko.karu@ttu.ee

http://mi.ttu.ee/min-novation/  

Information at TUT webpage: estonian ja english

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

Newsletter No 2 July 2011

Newsletter No 2 July 2011 by

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

Overview of the Estonian Raw Materials Industry - Rein Voog, Estonian Association of Mining Enterprises

Overview of the Estonian Raw Materials Industry - Rein Voog, Estonian Association of Mining EnterprisesRein Voog Overview of the Estonian Raw Materials Industry

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

2nd MIN-NOVATION Regional Network meeting in Estonia, 09.06.2011

The 2^nd MRN meeting was held on 09.06.2011. The meeting was organized by the Department of Mining, Tallinn University of Technology. The coordinator of Estonian MRN is Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Mining.

The 2^nd MRN meeting was attended 26 people from mining enterprises, R&D institutions dealing with mining and processing waste management, and local government.

The aim of the meeting was to present ideas and assumptions of the MIN-NOVATION project and give interesting lectures. The first part of the meeting was on Department of Mining bachelor and master graduation theses defending procedure. The second part included MIN-NOVATION project topics, given by Veiko Karu. The third part of the meeting was lectures by invited lecturers. The lecturers were selected to cover the topic of R&D in mining field and waste management. The subjects were the following: “Underwater blasting and mining” by Paul Vesiloo from Department of Mining; “Power plant ash opportunities for use and research” by Aleksander Pototski from Estonian Energy Ltd; “Basics of new utilization processes for oil shale combustion solid wastes” by Professor Rein Kuusik from Laboratory of Inorganic Materials, Tallinn University of Technology; “Mixtures, fillers, aggregates etc” by Hannes Arraste from Henkel Balti Ltd; “Rock properties and processing conditions” by Professor Emeritus Enno Reinsalu from Department of Mining.

 

Reports, minutes of meeting, surveys, and other meeting materials are available on the Web: http://mi.ttu.ee/min-novation

View all

Get your own

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

1st MIN-NOVATION Regional Network meeting in Estonia, 27.05.2011

1^st MRN meeting was held on 27.05.2011. The meeting was organized by the Department of Mining, Tallinn University of Technology. The coordinator of Estonian MRN is Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Mining.

Our 1^st MRN meeting was attended by 25 people from mining enterprises, R&D institutions dealing with mining and processing waste management, and local government.

The aim of the meeting was to present ideas and assumptions of the MIN-NOVATION project and give interesting lectures. The first part of the meeting was an overview of the MIN-NOVATION project task, opportunities and following activities – given by Veiko Karu. The second part was an introduction of Department of Mining and R&D in mining given by Professor Ingo Valgma, Karin Robam and Ain Anepaio. The third part of the meeting was lectures by invited lecturers. The lecturers were selected to cover the topic of R&D in mining field and waste management. The subjects were following: “ALLU – screening and crushing” by Aarne Priks from Avelin-AP Ltd, Fredrik Dromberg and Ilpo Ellonen from Allu Finland; “Horizontal Directional Drilling” by Anton Timofejev from Vermeer Technics-Baltic Ltd and “Surface miner experience in Australia” by Mati Ertsen from Wirtgen Estonia.

 

Reports, minutes of meeting, surveys, and other meeting materials are available on the Web: http://mi.ttu.ee/min-novation

View all

Get your own

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

Report from 1st MIN-NOVATION Baltic Network meeting, 25.04.11

Report from the 1^st MIN-NOVATION Baltic Network and 1^st Project Steering Committee meeting –Tallinn, Estonia

Between 11 – 14 April 2011 within the framework of Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007 – 2013 in Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia took place the 1^st MIN-NOVATION Baltic Network (MBN) meeting and the 1^st Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting which have been continuation of MIN-NOVATION kick off meeting from 27 – 28 January 2011. The meeting was organized by Veiko Karu and his colleagues from the University – thank you for great work!

The meeting starts with welcome speech given by Authority of Tallinn University of Technology - Vice-Rector for research Professor Erkki Truve. Then the overview of the University and Department of Mining were gave by Vice-Rector Professor Erkki Truve and Professor Ingo Vagma – Head of Mining Department.

After official part of the MIN-NOVATION meeting the Project Steering Committee proceedings chaired by Professor Marek Cała started. During this session the following issues were presented and discussed:

1.    General rules of the Steering Committee function

2.    Review of the Kick-off Meeting Minutes

3.    Leaders’ tasks and responsibilities

4.    Communication plan between Work packages Leader, project Leader and project Partners

5.    Report of 1^st Project Progress

6.    Budget shifting – flexible rule

7.    Min – Novation meeting timetable

8.    Next tasks and term of the next Steering Committee

All discussed issues were accepted by members of Steering Committee. The timeframe of next SC was fixed – it will take place in November 2011 in Finland.

The aim of the MIN-NOVATION project for year 2011 is to set up transnational network (MBN), which will be consist of 6 regional networks (MRNs) from partners’ countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden. During international meeting in Tallinn the Min-Novation Baltic Network was established with the aim of facilitating the transfer of innovation and good practice in the Baltic Sea region, and in particular in the countries represented in the MIN-NOVATION consortium, in the area of mining and mineral processing waste management. The body running the MBN is a committee made up of representatives of MIN-NOVATION partner organizations. The MBN will be operate in parallel to the MRNs, and will provide complementary activities to that of the MRNs.

The most important points established during 1^st MBN meeting are:

1.    Detailed Work Plan together with Min–Novation meeting timetable (places and organisation)

2.    WP3 organisation (aims, activities, goals and tasks for Min-Novation Regional Network meeting in WP3, goals and tasks for Min-Novation Baltic Network meeting in WP3, specify outputs for WP3)

3.    Draft of catalogue of SMEs

4.    Communications Plan

5.    Activity for WP4.

Each Partners’ Institution were provided presentations at the level of WP3 tasks and outputs.

During MBN session interesting presentation about “Utilization of Waste Rock From Estonian Oil Shale Mining” was given by Tarmo Tohver. It was good introduction to technical tours to the oil shale mines and waste heaps.

Fot. 1. Project Steering Committee meeting chaired by Professor Marek Cała – Chairman of PSC

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 11.04.2011

Fot. 2. Participants of the 1^st MBN meeting at the Tallinn University of Technology

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 11.04.2011

At the end of The MBN meeting in Estonia the very interesting technical tours to the sites of oil shale, phosphate rock, limestone and black shale (uranium) extraction or waste storage took place.

The Estonian oil shale deposits are the biggest in Europe and covers about 3,000 km², from which 425 km² have been mined. The beginning of oil shale extraction at the territory of Estonia dates back to the 1916, and a total of one billion tonnes of oil shale has been mined. There are 4.9 billion ton of oil shale reserves in Estonia (~ 1.4 billion ton of  mineable reserve; ~ 2.2 billion ton of submarinal mineral resource; ~ 1.3 billion ton in protected areas) [1, 2].

The Estonian oil shale is found at depths of 10–70 meters below the surface, they are extracted by both open cast – when deposits lies up to 30 meters below the ground, and by underground mining – when deposits lies more than 30 meters below the ground. The calorific value of the usable oil shale is about 1,900–2,600 kcal (8–11 MJ/kg). Oil shale can be used directly either a fuel for producing energy or synthetic oil. More than 90% of the electricity produced in Estonia comes from oil shale [2].

The oil shale mines which were visited first (April 13) belong to the Eesti Energia – Aidu and Vanaküla. This company is the leading energy company in the Baltic states and the largest company in the world working with oil shale – each year about  15 million tonnes of oil shale are used to produce energy. Nowadays 3142 people are working for Eesti Energia Mines (in two open cast and two underground mines)  [1,2].

Beside the topsoil, which is easily to remove by excavator the overburden contains a big amount of limestone, which needs to be blasted before it can be removed (fot. 4).

Fot. 3. Min-Novation project Participants in the Aidu oil shale open cast mine 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

Fot. 4. Overburden dump at the Aidu oil shale open cast mine 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

Fot. 5. Aidu oil shale open cast mine – separation plant 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

Fot. 6. Vanaküla oil shale open cast mine 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

The oil shale, limestone or phosphorite mining activities provide the large scale of waste, which are very visible especially in “flat” landscape. Only in Ida-Virumaa County the total volume of wastes from oil shale mining is more than 76 million m³ and it covers about 790 ha. They are located on the area of abandoned mines.

We had opportunity to see large waste heap at the Estonia oil shale mine (1,5 by 1,5 km and 50 m high), which is now preparing for new use – track racing (fot. 7).

Fot. 7. Waste rock heap at the Estonia underground oil shale mine

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

Fot. 8. Oil shale semi-coke heap at the Kiviõli mine – with the view point at the top 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

Fot. 9. Oil shale semi-coke heap at the Kiviõli mine 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

Fot. 10. Oil shale semi-coke heap at the Kiviõli mine 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 13.04.11

During the second day of our technical tour (April 14) Min-Novation Project Participants visited the Väo Limestone quarry in Tallinn operated by Limestone Product Factory LLC, which is one of the oldest producers of construction materials in Estonia and holds the leading position amongst the companies producing crushed limestone. During last years the production is based on the waste materials located at the quarry’s bottom. The secondary raw materials will be re-extracted during the next 10-12 years and after this time limestone natural deposit, which lies 1,5 below the quarry’s bottom will be extracted. In 2008 a waste product remanufacturing line was installed.

Fot. 11. Väo Limestone quarry in Tallinn – secondary raw material deposits on the quarry’s bottom – CDE separation 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 14.04.11

Fot. 12. Väo Limestone quarry in Tallinn – CDE separation

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 14.04.11

At the end of the day MIN-NOVATION Partners visited phosphorite rock post-mining area and burned black shale  waste heap in Jõelähtme, close to Tallinn. The phosphorite rock deposits which are located in this region are the biggest in Europe. Some part of phosphorite deposits is mix with clay shale includes organic substance, sulpher and other minerals. Clay shale mixed with air and water causes spontaneous combustions and dangerous gas is emitted to the environment [5].

Fot. 13. Phosphorite rock mined out area 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 14.04.11

Fot. 14. Phosphorite rock mined out area 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 14.04.11

Fot. 15. Phosphorite rock post-mining area 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 14.04.11

Fot. 16. Phosphorite rock post-mining area 

From MIN-NOVATION meeting in Tallinn, 14.04.11

Very good organization of the meeting, which included – besides presentations and discussion on Workpackage 3 related issues – very interesting presentations about mining, current research connected with mining and environment conducting by the University, waste utilization, as well as technical tours gave us the great overview of the mining and waste management in Estonia.

For more information about project
please go to: www.min-novation.eu
                                               Anna Ostręga and Justyna Adamczyk

Sources:

1.    Eesti Energia Mines: „Everything begins with oil shale mining in Estonia”. Power Point Presentation, April 2011.

2.    Eesti Energia Mines: https://www.energia.ee/en/power/oilshale/mining, April 13, 2011.

3.    Information from technical tours, April 13 – 14.

4.    Paekivitoodete Tehas OÜ. Bulletin, 2009.

5.    Rynek budowlany Estonii, Wydawnictwo AO Ůlo & Tiit Siinmaa,Tallinn-1996

--
Mining and Mineral Processing Innovation Network for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises in Waste Technologies
http://mi.ttu.ee/min-novation/