MIWARE-Mine water as a resource
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | IVL SVENSKA MILJÖINSTITUTET AB - IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 492 524 |
| Project duration | November 2014 - October 2017 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Eureka cluster co-funding |
Purpose and goal
MIWARE- MIne WAter as a REsource had the goal to develop and demonstrate robust solutions for treatment of mining water. In the Swedish part of the project, Chromafora and IVL developed technologies for separation of rare earth elements (REE) and for separation of antimony by means of selective sorption processes. For both applications promising results were achieved that can be used for designing a process in larger scale. For some parts of the process further optimisation is possible.
Expected results and effects
Swedish Mining industry has worked a lot to reduce their environmental impact. Mining waste and water management are important factors for the industry. Within the MIWARE project we have shown a method based on selective sorption that can be used for recovery of metals from by-products, but also for separation of unwanted compounds from wastewater. The technology has a potential to improve environmental performance in the mining industry and allow for better recovery of metals.
Planned approach and implementation
The project included a stepwise development starting at laboratory scale testing followed by trials in pilot scale for the antimony application. At the same time it was investigated how the process could be designed in larger scale to make economic estimations The sorbent material was adapted to the application for best sorption results in each application (rare earth metals, antimony) and membrane filtration to work well in these applications.