Norwegian Laboratory for Mineral and Materials Characterisation

The Norwegian Laboratory for Mineral and Material Characterization (MiMaC) is a national infrastructure that covers the entire value chain from minerals to materials. The infrastructure is used in research on minerals, metals and advanced materials. By seeing the entire value chain as one, great opportunities are opened up for interdisciplinary research and industrial development. It is a national business policy goal to exploit mineral resources to a greater extent, including secondary resources. The potential for innovation in the mineral and metallurgy industry is great in Norway. But the industry faces major challenges in the utilization of minerals that require more complex methods to be extracted. At the same time, greater demands are placed on being able to utilize materials that are already in use after the end of their lifetime. To assess whether resources are economically sustainable for the industry, it is of great importance to have national expertise and to be able to build on strong national research environments. MiMaC has established an infrastructure to characterize the structures and chemical properties of minerals, metals and advanced nanomaterials. The laboratory is capable of characterization in 1-3 dimensions, from atomic to micrometer scale, and down to ppb level highly sensitive chemical analysis. The laboratory aims to be an international leader in mineral and material characterization of materials for sustainable resource utilization, including materials for battery technology, silicon and secondary resource utilization (recycling and urban mining). MiMaC builds on existing laboratories at NTNU, SINTEF and the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU). The laboratory strengthens basic and applied research within minerals and materials through interdisciplinary research. This will be of great importance for innovation in the mineral and metal industry in Norway. MiMaC is also a central infrastructure within research into functional organic and inorganic materials. Since 2022, MiMaC has had the status of a Gemini centre, where one of the aims is to create more interdisciplinary projects with a background in the infrastructure. Partners: NTNU (PL), Geological Survey of Norway, SINTEF Industri Funding: Research Council of Norway, NTNU, Geological Survey of Norway and SINTEF

The proposed infrastructure, MiMaC, is aimed at establishing a world-leading national laboratory for multi-scale (atomic to micron) and multi-dimensional (from 1D to 3D) structure characterisation and high-sensitivity (down to ppb level) chemical analysis of minerals, metals and advanced nano materials. The national laboratory will be based on a further development, upgrading and coordination of the existing laboratories, located at each node of the three consortium members NTNU, NGU and SINTEF. A series of state-of-the-art instruments of national importance will be invested, which include - 3D Atom Probe Tomography (APT) for 3D chemical and structural analysis at the nm scale. -Field Emission Electron Probe Micro-Analyser (FE–EPMA), for µm-level chemical and structural analysis. -Automated Mineralogy System (AMS) for efficient mineral characterisation. -Two sets of complementary Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (LA–SS–ICP–MS and LA–QqQ–ICP–MS/MS) for chemical and isotopic mineral analysis and mapping, and inorganic and hybrid organic-inorganic materials analysis. The total budget for the proposed infrastructure is 84.827 MNOK (with 54.942 MNOK in NFR support). Such a national infrastructure is highly complementary to the existing micro/nano structure characterisation infrastructures in Norway, e.g. NorTEM, NanoLab, NorFab and RECX. MiMaC will strengthen the fundamental and applied research environments of academic institutions and the innovation in mineral and metallurgical industries. It will also facilitate the research fields of nano and advanced materials in Norway. The value-chain approach from minerals to materials will open for new cross-disciplinary research opportunities.