Mining Industry Research Handbook

Mining Industry
Research Handbook

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Results of the work of the European Thematic Network NESMI, the Network on European Sustainable Minerals Industries, funded
by the European Commission under the 5th Framework Programme for Research and Technical development in the Thematic
Programme GROWTH (Competitive and sustainable growth).
© Copyright NESMI Network 2005, All Rights Reserved

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Editorial
This Mining Industry Research Handbook comprises the results of the work of the
European Thematic Network NESMI, the Network on European Sustainable Minerals
Industries. A total of 43 members and about 70 so-called associated members (partners
not receiving any funding) worked together for 3 years from April 1st 2002 until March
31st 2005. Their main objective was to concentrate forces in the European mining and
processing fields in order to make a significant step forward towards sustainable raw
material supply in Europe.
The network was funded by the European Commission under the 5th Framework
Programme for Research and Development in the Thematic Programme GROWTH
(Competitive and sustainable growth). It is only the second time that the mining and
minerals industries have been successful in getting European attention focussed on
them. In that sense, NESMI was a chance and a challenge; a chance to inform the
European Community of the importance of this industry sector and a challenge to be
successful in becoming an important player on the European scene. To reach these
ambitious goals, it was important that NESMI became and continued to be the platform
for exchanging information on research and development (RTD) and for developing
new RTD strategies for the whole sector. In addition NESMI had to become a nucleus
for forming strategic alliances in the field of RTD and beyond. Therefore, one of
NESMI’s objectives was to bring together all players on the scene: producers, suppliers,
consultants, associations and researchers from different mining regions and different
mining branches.
The major achievement of the work was the development of a research and
development strategy. The aim was to identify the basic needs for further research in
this area in Europe in order to reach the declared goal of a sustainable raw material
supply. Thanks to good collaboration within the network and the many valuable
contributions of the partners the network was a real success.
At the end of this successful period of work we wish to express our sincere gratitude to
the European Commission, DG Research for the financial support of the network and
especially Dr. Alain Adjemian, who accompanied the network as Programme Officer in
charge with interest and constructive remarks.
Finally, I’d like to dedicate my personal thanks to the work package leaders of NESMI
and the members of the Steering Board (see Annex). These persons were the keys to the
success of the network due to their high engagement and willingness to contribute more
than was asked.
Dr. Horst Hejny
NESMI Coordinator
March 2005
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Mining Industry Research Handbook
Table of contents
Editorial........................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7
Political context: EU policies and RTD ...................................................................... 11
Minerals in EU 25............................................................................................... 11
General EU policies of relevance ....................................................................... 12
EU communications............................................................................................ 16
Benefits of RTD in the mineral industries.......................................................... 18
General context and state-of-the-art........................................................................... 20
The EU and the extractive industry sector RTD................................................. 20
Overall EC approach.............................................................................. 20
EU support to RTD in the extractive sector............................................ 20
Need for co-operation: Asia as an example............................................ 21
Waste minimisation and resource management ................................................. 22
Ecological production and recycling .................................................................. 24
Mineral processing and metallurgy .................................................................... 29
Safety and health................................................................................................. 33
Education and training........................................................................................ 37
The development of the RTD strategy........................................................................ 42
Basic approach.................................................................................................... 42
Collection of Information Needed ...................................................................... 44
Method of evaluation.......................................................................................... 46
Basic statistics of the survey............................................................................... 49
Participation ........................................................................................... 49
RTD efforts.............................................................................................. 52
RTD strategies ........................................................................................ 55
Identified competences and needs ...................................................................... 56
Overview ................................................................................................. 56
Exploration ............................................................................................. 61
Extraction................................................................................................ 63
Mine logistic............................................................................................ 65
Mine development ................................................................................... 67
Mine management................................................................................... 69
Processing............................................................................................... 71
Remediation / Rehabilitation .................................................................. 73
Cross section knowledge......................................................................... 75
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Automation / Navigation ......................................................................... 77
Information technology........................................................................... 79
Communication technologies.................................................................. 81
Safety and health..................................................................................... 83
Research priorities and other actions ......................................................................... 86
Waste minimisation and resource management ................................................. 86
Ecological production and recycling .................................................................. 92
Mineral processing and metallurgy .................................................................. 102
Safety and health............................................................................................... 105
Examples from outside Europe......................................................................... 106
Initiating knowledge and technology transfer ......................................................... 108
ESA workshop “Space Technologies and the Mining and Minerals
Industry - DOWN TO EARTH –“.................................................................... 108
NESMI-Workshop "Looking over the fence - new technologies for
improved mining in Europe" ............................................................................ 108
Improving education and training ............................................................................ 110
Efficient innovation management ............................................................................. 116
Funding Sources and procedures.............................................................................. 123
EU-Funding: ..................................................................................................... 123
National Funding .............................................................................................. 129
Other funding.................................................................................................... 135
Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 137
Annex ........................................................................................................................... 140
List of NESMI partners and associated members............................................. 140
Coordinator........................................................................................... 140
Steering Board ...................................................................................... 140
Advisory Board ..................................................................................... 141
Members................................................................................................ 142
Associated members.............................................................................. 145

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Introduction
NESMI, the Network on European Sustainable Mining and Processing Industries started
its work in April 2002. To recall the situation in which NESMI was established, some
background have is essential. The mining industry still has significant importance for
the European economy as well as significant impact on its ecology and regional
development. The mining and adjacent industries produce about 9% of the raw
materials required for the whole European industry. In some mining branches such as
brown coal or NaCl production the European mining industry represents from 20% to
25% of the worldwide production. Mineral production in the EU is about 3 000 million
tons per year, the largest mass producer in European industry. In the Eastern European
countries the mining industry has additional high importance for employment. About
900.000 employees are working in mining production and adjacent companies in the
European countries.
The mining industry represents an important part of the structure of European industry.
Mining is very significant when considering all the other industries it supplies, in
addition to the support and logistics industries that supply it and transport its large
quantities of product materials. Mining products dominate mass transportation. Nearly
all the other European industries directly or indirectly use mining products. While the
size of the European mining industry has decreased significantly during recent years, it
is still an important economical factor. Elsewhere mining is growing worldwide but
European countries are becoming more disadvantaged in comparison to other
continents, partly because of geology but also because the smaller European producers
and suppliers have become weaker in relation to the international mining market. To
some extent this weakening is also due to increasing amounts of regulation. In future
networking as well as cooperation in all fields of RTD, information and knowledge
management have to fulfil ecological, economical and social demands.
The mining industry in Europe is heterogeneous in structure, in ecological and technical
standards as well as in international networking. Nevertheless all branches of mining
have similar challenges for the future, which arise from internationalisation in the
markets and from ecological and economical standards. However, the European mining
industry also has some unique problems based in regional structures of production and
markets.
The problems arising from global competition, in all branches of mining, need to be
identified and resolved.
The data reported here relates to Europe as a whole and not only to the original
European Community (EU15) when NESMI was started. Of course the European
Community has now expanded to include 25 member states. NESMI has not
distinguished between them from its start.
Primarily, the work of our network focused on Europe, but the network itself has always
been open to the world. We have tried to establish contacts and cooperation with
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overseas partners as well as across Europe. The markets are global so we also have to
think globally in terms of RTD.
Some of the problems of the sector are listed as follows.
Environmental problems, e.g.:
• Mineral production has significant influence on land usage, on air quality, waste
and water management as well as on subsidence.
• Reduction of waste is becoming more and more important.
• Reduction of emissions is important.
• Many abandoned mined areas have environmental problems.
• Environmental restrictions have increased significantly in most European
countries although standards do vary.
• Demands on ecological aspects in mining are increasing.
• Recycling is becoming more and more important.
Economic problems, e.g.:
• The market prices for most minerals have been decreasing for many years
interrupted by some short periods of higher prices.
• Pressure is increasing for sustainable mining.
• The European mining industries have heterogeneous structures ranging from
international big players to small local mining companies.
• Supply industries have some problems with the globalisation of markets because
of decreasing home markets and different production techniques in non-
European deposits.
• Research and development effort should be increased to handle the market
changes; however investment in RTD has been reduced in many companies.
• Rapid changes in the market demands flexible distribution and production
systems.
• The European standards in health, safety and environment are higher than in
most non-European countries, which increases relative production costs.
• New technologies in logistics, knowledge management and e-business are
necessary.
Safety and Health problems, e.g.:
• Mining processes are often dangerous and the high density of machines in
production processes increases safety and health risks.
• The educational standard of mining engineers and specialists needs to be
internationalised.
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These problems have to be solved in order to approach sustainability in providing
Europe with the mineral resources it needs. Both provision of sustainable resources and
sustainable waste management and minimisation are very important for the whole
European economy.
The traditional method of solving such problems is by running RTD programmes within
one company or within a group of companies, on national and international levels. RTD
ability and experience are normally held within a small group of experts. This has
proved inadequate; the present state of research activity has to be improved in terms of
higher effectiveness and synergy. Networking can improve understanding of the
problems and establish ways for improved problem solving.
The main problems with current research activities are:
• Parallel development of techniques, processes and products is common due to
similar problems in different mining areas.
• Small and medium-size companies often do not have access to relevant research
programmes.
• Build up of knowledge is too slow.
• Research transfer into production is too slow.
• Effective involvement of support and customer sectors is not taking place.
• Concentration of effort on the most significant topics is not achieved.
• The dissemination of results is inefficient.
• Research efforts do not include ecological aspects.
That is where NESMI has improved the situation.
Objectives of NESMI
The European Network NESMI was established on the basis of this background and all
problems described. One of the main objectives for NESMI was to establish and
develop European networking for the European mining and minerals processing
industry taking into account the different mining regions and the different mining
branches. The network had to have the participation of producers, suppliers, research
organisations, universities and associations. In particular NESMI has defined the
following objectives:
• To increase knowledge on RTD
• To communicate RTD results
• To initiate common projects
• To initiate benchmarking for aims, quality and transfer of research activities
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• To optimise transfer of technologies
• To increase mining and processing education
• To increase quality in eco-efficient production and in resource management
NESMI brought together all the parties involved in these topics; promoted co-operation
within Europe and concentrated on information and RTD exchange as well as on RTD
transfer into production and processes. NESMI focused on developing an RTD strategy
for the sector in order to harmonise and improve the approach to RTD and thus improve
the chances of winning public funding for significant projects.
Another key component of NESMI was the provision of enhanced technology transfer
programmes aiming at improving and supporting the rate of technology uptake by
industry; particularly SME’s and mining organisations in candidate countries of Eastern
Europe. Consequently NESMI aimed at improving the competitiveness of the European
mining industries and the dissemination of information in Europe.
NESMI provided a basis for evaluation of variability in technology uptake throughout
the European mining industry and identification of critical technical, economic,
environmental or social barriers to successful implementation of innovative
technologies.
Different extractive branches have different structures but significant problems are in
common. This was the basis for NESMI to build up its main objectives, which are
important for all branches of mining and for which cooperation and coordination in
RTD and in information and knowledge transfer are helpful. Establishing a network like
NESMI had a large impact in the development of sustainability in many fields related to
the sector.

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