Sustainable, decarbonised vanadium, titanium and iron extraction from Europe’s low-grade vanadium-bearing titanomagnetite deposits

Sustainable, decarbonised vanadium, titanium and iron extraction from Europe’s low-grade vanadium-bearing titanomagnetite deposits

The EC’s Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Act sets multiple benchmarks for reducing Europe’s dependency on a few unlike-minded third countries for strategic/critical raw materials. Through the domestic extraction of two CRMs – “vanadium” (V) and “titanium metal” (Ti metal) – AVANTIS addresses the first target of the Act (> 10% domestic extraction, for V & Ti). AVANTIS’ rationale lies in the fact that Europe has a multitude of unexploited, low-grade V-bearing titanomagnetite deposits in Finland, Sweden, Greenland, Norway, Poland, Ukraine… However, these deposits have a complex “spiderweb-like” mineral assemblage. Without selective blasting, selective fragmentation and pre-concentration technologies to separate the Ti-rich ilmenite grains from the V-bearing magnetite, it is uneconomic to exploit these deposits. Supported by a bespoke forensic geometallurgy approach, AVANTIS develops a novel selective blasting approach that allows for rock excavation in view of increased mineral liberation at the blasting stage, and reduced energy demand in the crushing & grinding stages. Likewise, AVANTIS designs tailored, water-free and water-lean pre-concentration technologies that allow to produce two distinct pre-concentrates ((1) ilmenite-rich, Ti-pre-concentrate and (2) ilmenite-free, V-pre-concentrate). The water-lean method is also tailored to process V/Ti-bearing mining wastes from historical/on-going operations. The resulting flowsheets have a low net water consumption (> 70% water recycling) and reduced GHG intensity of extraction (reduction of 60–700 g CO2,eq per t ore hauled to the crushing plant). A preliminary analysis of the potential European reserves that are unlocked, yields a total of 154 Mt Ti & 3.5 Mt V (still excluding Ukraine), to be compared with current levels of EU consumption (1.5 Mt/y Ti; 12.7 kt/y V). AVANTIS strengthens the “responsible mining in Europe”-paradigm, increasing society’s trust in domestic CRM production.