IMA Engineering is taking part in the EU-funded project ITERAMS (Integrated Mineral Technologies for More Sustainable Raw Material Supply).
The EU Horizon 2020 ITERAMS project intends to reinvent the role of water and waste in mining. The project targets at significantly reducing water consumption by circulating process waters as well as the amounts of tailings waste through valorization of the mineral matrix.
ITERAMS is three-year EU project, which will run until 31 May 2020. The consortium with 16 partners coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is multidisciplinary covering well the disciplines of geology, mining, minerals processing, microbiology, thermodynamics, chemistry, water and environmental sciences, sustainability, process modelling and simulation in a close cooperation between academia and industry.
Project includes seven work packages of which IMA is in the lead of WP1. The main objective of the WP1 is to create capabilities for rapid separation of various material streams in mines according to their elemental compositions and their main mineralogical features.
- Aim 1. The purpose of the task 1 is to collect data and samples for other tasks and work packages
- Aim 2. Information on the variability of the ore in the study targets is collected through measurement while drilling (MWD) and analysis while drilling (AWD; Fig. 1-1)
- Aim 3. Task also aims in developing methods to track the material from the ore on the belt to the plant by focusing on mineralogical signatures that can be measured on-line with cross belt analyzer
Sample collection for ITERAMS WP1 (Sample collection for other tasks and work packages) has started in co-operation between Boliden Kevitsa, IMA Engineering, Leoben University and Oulu University. The team planned and executed the kick-off meeting and the first sampling campaign in Kevitsa Mine.
The team studied Kevitsa Mine orebody mineralogy, potential locations of suitable geo-polymer locations and then collected the first set of samples from blast benches and tailings area. Collected samples were then split and transported to Oulu.