Mineral Processing Technology

Since 2006, a workshop on reactive metals processing, most often called Reactive Metals Workshop, or RMW, has been organized yearly by collaboration between universities in the US, mainly Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and universities in Japan, primarily the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) at the University of Tokyo. After a break due to the pandemic, many signed up for the first workshop since 2020, the 16th ever RMW, and about 60 participants accepted the invitation to attend and found their way to MIT March 24-25, 2023.

During the two-day workshop, eight invited speakers from universities in Japan, USA, Norway and Iceland took to the floor on subjects like novel type batteries, metal production, processing and recycling. Lively discussions on the subjects continued between all participants after each presentation, in the breaks, and during the poster session. In attendance were mainly researchers, professors and graduate students from the scientific community, while some with an industrial background also attended.

Picture 1. Attendes at RMW16.

main event during RMW is the poster session. During this time, everyone attending is given a chance to contribute to the event by presenting their work. First, everyone is given the opportunity to have a short 3-minute pitch in front of everyone, to present their research and give a reason for continued elaboration and discussion during the active poster session. During the poster session everyone, also the attendees presenting posters, are allowed to walk around and speak to each other regarding the research presented. A total of 18 posters were presented at RMW16.

ION4RAW was presented in the workshop with participation from SINTEF. SINTEF has during the project worked with electrochemical recovery of the targeted metals through electrochemical deposition, and participated with a poster titled: “Electrochemical Recovery of Au and Ag from Ore Deposits using Innovative Deep Eutectic Solvent Ionic Liquids”.

Picture 2. Gøril Jahrsengene(SINTEF) presentation

Picture 3. Gøril (SINTEF) in front of her poster.

The poster covered results regarding electrochemical characterization of the suggested electrochemical systems focusing on targeted elements, Au and Ag, as well Cu and Fe that is also going to be present in the electrolyte in the ION4RAW process. During the 3-minute pitch, SINTEF also showed a picture of a wire completely covered in what visually appeared to be gold, obtained after an experiment using an electrolyte where mine waste had been leached. Ending the pitch with an open question regarding this deposit: “Is it really gold and were we able to recover it electrochemically?”, made sure many of the participants stopped at the poster afterwards, to discuss the results, the ION4RAW process, and general use of DES in metal recovery.

Besides the main event of the poster session, the workshop is viewed as an excellent opportunity to network. Allowing for frequent and informal breaks throughout both days, an evening banquet with pre-drinks networking in the evening, and a lab tour in the MIT labs and buildings (ending in the famous library dome), it was a great opportunity to present the ION4RAW project, results from the electrochemical recovery task, and network on this and possible new projects.

Picture 4. Recovered Au and Ag.