The European project SLIM
The European project SLIM "Sustainable Low Impact Mining Solution for the Exploitation of Small Mineral Deposits Based on Advanced Rock Blasting and Environmental Technologies", funded by the European Commission within the Horizon2020 Program has recently been launched. This initiative involves thirteen European partners from Austria, Denmark, Sweden, France and Spain and will include the validation of technologies developed in mines located in Toledo and Granada (Spain) and in Eisenerz (Austria). SLIM will be developed over the next four years and has a global budget of 6,979,200 euros.
SLIM project is coordinated by the School of Mines and Energy of the Technical University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM). The consortium represents two further partner organizations: 3GSM, Benito Arno e Hijos, Bureau de Recherches Geologique et Minières, VA Erzberg GmbH, Gate2Growth, Luleå University of Technology, Maxam Corp. International, Minpol GmbH, Montan University Leoben, Minera de Orgiva, Graz Technical University and ZABALA Innovation Consulting.
The project's structure and scope are built upon a full user-driven strategy for the development of a new sustainable selective low-impact technological solution for mining of small mineral deposits (including those with chemically complex ore-forming phases) from European sources.
To achieve that, the different actions of SLIM include a comprehensive characterization of explosive technologies and their behaviour on small mineral deposits. Simultaneously, it will undertake an exhaustive analysis on rock fragmentation in order to develop the technology to measure muckpile properties and define a new dynamic modelling system. Interaction rock / explosive pre and post-blast will be taken into account.
The technical development is underway, the plan and execute the validation of the SLIM solution using an upstream / downstream approach: the actual technical solution will be deployed on-site on some mining sites (upstream) and validated on the corresponding processing plants ( downstream) so as to ensure both its superior technical performance and its integration capacity within the mining and processing value chains.
Researchers:
- Daniel Johansson
- Changping Yi
- Håkan Schunnesson
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