Knowing where the metals in a smart phone were mined and refined is essential from a responsibility perspective. Geoscientists are exploring reliable metal traceability solutions, and the latest study investigates how rare earth elements can be traced along the value chain. The study has been conducted as a part of Nordic Innovation’s Nordic Sustainable Minerals project. The project has also designed a Nordic database for already mined and processed materials.
The Nordic region has started an ambitious journey towards reducing environmental and climate impacts from the minerals sector. EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) highlights this for the whole of Europe.
“Promoting the energy transition and developing defense technology require a significant amount of minerals. Ensuring their availability responsibly requires the contribution of mining operators and the entire value chain. The Nordic countries play an important role as leaders in this area. This involves both traceability and the utilization of by-products”, says Kimmo Tiilikainen, Director General at GTK, one of the project partners.
Traceability is key to sustainability in global value chains
For tracing the origin of minerals and metals, geoscientists are looking into the ore deposits as well as the whole value chain. They are trying to find minerals’ unique fingerprints that can identify the deposits themselves as well as differentiating them from other deposits globally. Traceability gives the sustainability of global value chains transparency and accountability.
In this proof-of-concept study geoscientists have looked at a magnet value chain from mining and refining to manufacturing. The new results will help to increase the traceability within mining. Xuan Liu, Senior Researcher at GTK explains:
“We investigated rare earth deposits including Kringlerne in Greenland, Norra Kärr in Sweden, Fen in Norway and Sokli in Finland. The results demonstrate that the only geo-signatures that survive the entire refining and manufacturing process are certain trace elements and isotopes. These results will help increase the reliability of the traceability together with advanced document-based solutions.”
New database highlights the potential in secondary resources
Improved management and classification of secondary resources and estimation of their critical raw material potential in the Nordic countries is essential to a more circular and sustainable action.
FACTS: Mining waste is an example of secondary materials!
Classification of secondary materials depends on collecting and utilizing more data to improve its understanding. The database introduces a framework for the information management and classification of secondary resources and their critical raw material potential using modern data science and provides up to date case studies with interdisciplinary geoscience applications.
The purpose of the database is to:
| 1. Create a knowledge base: The database will make it possible to reevaluate the resources when it is needed. |
| 2. Classify data: Vast amounts of data are being collected at different stages of the metals and minerals value chain. The data can be used to define and classify by-products, estimating their value, to make secondary resources more accessible, and finding alternative usage and applications. |
| 3. Help with decision-making: We can use the data gathered from the minerals and metals value chain to optimize the recovery processes as well as future mining projects. We can also identify harmful or dangerous substances mitigating environmental impacts. |
“Informatization of data helps decision makers to get up-to-date, relevant knowledge in a timely manner”, says Leonardo Feltrin, Senior Research Specialist, GTK.
Background
The Nordic Sustainable Minerals project is funded under the Sustainable Minerals program. It is coordinated by Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) in collaboration with Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Geological Survey of Norway, Geological Survey of Sweden, Iceland GeoSurvey, Ministry of Mineral Resources Government of Greenland, Norwegian Directorate of Mining and University of Iceland, Faculty of Earth Sciences.
The results of the study was launched in Helsinki in September 20. Read more about the event here.
