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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Mineral resources in sustainable land-use planning

Objectives of the commitment

The objective of this commitment is to facilitate the sustainable exploitation of Europe’s mineral deposits for the benefit of European industry and society, considering national, regional and local socio-economic developments. This includes support for the European minerals sector; support for European expertise and best practice in minerals exploration and development; assists in the security of supply of raw materials to Europe’s manufacturing sector; thus support development of green and low carbon technologies. Mineral resources in general, including CRM, will be covered. The commitment will address challenges facing the minerals sector by analysing case studies including conflicting and competing land use, valuation of mineral resources, life-cycle analysis of mineral resource exploitation, including secondary resources and land use of closed mines.

Description of the activities

1) Identifying key challenges and perspectives related to land-use planning and mineral resources and how this can be linked to the national mineral policies. Examples, considering different perspectives such as, known versus unknown deposits;; or EU versus local scale. Other aspects may include e.g.: how to compare mineral resources with ecosystem services; land-use conflict analysis; mineral resources in indigenous people areas. In addition, a template/procedure for case studies will be established, so that case histories can be compared.

2) Develop the case studies illustrating the challenges. The aim is that the case studies will collectively focus on different perspectives and scales. Below are some examples of possible areas to study:
a. Unknown resources and land-use planning
b. Regional/county-level integrated land-use planning
c. Urban planning (regional future scenario modelling)
d. Indigenous people (particular land-use challenges)
e. Land use conflict analyses (case studies including GIS modelling)
f. Mine/quarry life cycle (project life cycle planning; transient impact)
g. Surface to sub-surface (3D data integration)

3) Guidelines and input for best practices. Developed guidelines should take account INSPIRE, Minerals4EU foundation, EUMINET Commitment, EURARE, Minatura2020, Mica, ProSUM, and other relevant EU projects. This part of the commitment is aimed at defining principles for securing sustainable use and access to mineral resources, and also land use after extraction of mineral resources by means of long-term land-use planning. In order for improved inclusion of mineral data in land use management a connection should be made to existing and planned information infrastructures such as Minerals4EU and the EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB) and the LUISA platform. Thus the commitment will furnish inputs for the assessments of land use development and conflicts at a national level in Europe. The LUISA platform can further be used in the linkages between regional and local development and CRM exploitation will be stressed and proposed in existing framework. All of this will allow evaluating options and scenarios of exploitation of mineral resources at national level considering important aspects in land-use such as demography, socio-economic trends, geographic location, and the necessary infrastructure (e.g. transport, energysupply). The expected outputs will contribute on how to include the concept of mineral deposits of public importance in the national mineral policies looking at it also from a European perspective.

Description of the expected impacts

The commitment highlight key challenges in mineral resource land use management and propose solutions for better synergies between mineral policies and land management systems. The commitment use key challenges in mineral resource land management to derive better tools for land management with focus on both current and future needs of mineral resources. This will lead to best practice recommendations from studies of implemented national mineral policies embedded into land use management. Areal conflicts can be either solved or risks reduced through the integration of areal-defined mineral resource information with other land use data.

The main impacts will be to:
a. strengthen the link between exploration and development of mineral deposits into national land-use and mineral policies.
b. secure a stronger national and EU long term management of mineral resources (including CRM).
c. achieve the objectives of the EIP on Raw Materials, particularly in improving conditions for sustainable access and supply of raw materials in the EU and links to “Exploration” and “Innovative extraction of raw materials”. The results can have a direct impact on action area ”Strategic international dialogues”;
d. more transparent and efficient exploration and mining permitting and licensing processes in the EU and an improved climate for investors and industry;
e. improved land-use planning based on a better knowledge of identified or potential deposits and their potential environmental impacts;
f. bring mineral resources in parity with other land use and natural resources whilst implementing the environmental acquits.
g. foster dialog and convergence of the actors dealing or depending on land-planning towards best practices and focus on solutions of land use conflicts.

Coordinating organisation & role

Name of the coordinating organisation: EuroGeoSurveys (EGS)Country: EuropeEntity profile: Multi-national organizationRole within the commitment:

EGS is the organisation of the Geological Surveys of Europe. EGS was part of the INSPIRE work carried out in the M4EU project, and is involved in MICA and ProSUM projects, working on communicating the projects’ benefits to its stakeholders. The commitment will benefit from EGS’s experience in establishing an effective dialogues among different stakeholders from all over Europe, and in communicating science in the frame of large EC projects.

Other partners

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.

Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.

Fundacion Cidaut

Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.

RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)

Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.

Universita' di Cagliari

Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.

Relight

Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.

Piaggio Aerospace

Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

Blackshape Aircrafts

Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

KU Leuven

Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.

FIDAMC

Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.

COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER

Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.

Existing EU Contribution: No

Period to implement the commitment: from 15-03-2016 to 31-12-2018