Special symposium at ICHMET2020 in Korea

SINReM welcomes you to attend our special symposium on “Metals in the circular economy: novel, sustainable technologies for metal recovery from ores and wastes” at the ICHMET2020 conference which will be held from 25-29th October 2020 in Seoul, Korea, and to submit an abstract for presentation in this symposium (before February 28). The symposium is co-organised by the international master programme SINReM (www.sinrem.eu).

See http://ichmet2020.org for more information on the conference and http://ichmet2020.org/sub/special.asp for more information on our special symposium (abstract also copied below). More details on the submission of abstracts can be found at http://ichmet2020.campus.or.kr/sub/abstract.asp.

We are also delighted to let you know that a Nature Forum and Nature Masterclass will be held during ICHMET along with Dr. Monica Contestabile, the Editor in Chief of Nature Sustainability (https://www.nature.com/natsustain/) and Dr. Graham Simpkins, the Editor in Chief of Nature Review Earth and Environment (https://www.nature.com/natrevearthenviron/). This will bring opportunity for policy makers, top scientists and Nature EICs to discuss social and policy issues related to the conference topics and the themes of our special session and projects.

We are looking forward to seeing you all at ICHMET2020 in Korea!

Prof. Gijs Du Laing (Centre for Advanced Process Technology for Urban Resource Recovery (CAPTURE) & Centre for Sustainable Chemistry (CSC), Ghent University, Belgium), Prof. Eric van Hullebusch (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France), Prof. Paivi Kinnunen (Metals and Materials Recovery, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland), Prof. Kerstin Kuchta (Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economy, Technical University Hamburg, Germany), Prof. Yong Sik Ok (Korea Biochar Research Center, Korea University, Korea)

Chairs of the special symposium on “Metals in the circular economy: novel, sustainable technologies for metal recovery from ores and wastes” at ICHMET2020

Metals in the circular economy: novel, sustainable technologies for metal recovery from ores and wastes

The increasing worldwide demand for metals, particularly technology-critical elements, is facing a crucial scarcity resulting in significantly rising prices and dependencies on the supply of metals from politically unstable countries. Subsequently with the demand increasing, the easy-to-mine deposits have been utilized and ore grades in mining have decreased. Some of the world’s largest consumers of metals hold no own primary production. This involves, as was already illustrated in the rare earth crisis in 2010, a severe risk for the supply since the export of these materials may be limited by producing countries at any time. In addition to economic benefits, mining has also created environmental challenges. Therefore, moving to circular economy concepts and evaluating all possible alternative sources of (critical) metals, such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), low-grade ores, industrial process residues and wastewaters, is essential to guarantee a secure and environmentally sustainable metal supply in the future. Therefore, this symposium will address novel, sustainable technologies that have recently been developed to recover metals from low-grade ores and wastes.