EFG participates at the 2019 Raw Materials Week

The EU Raw Materials Week is an annual event held every November in Brussels and offers an opportunity to stakeholders, scientists and other related professionals to get a fresh update about the latest EU activities in the field of mineral raw materials. For the EFG team, it was a great event to network with the raw materials community, to discuss and exchange on all relevant issues: policy, technology, international cooperation, framework conditions, knowledge base etc.

The EFG Team (Alberto and Glen) was present on Monday, showcasing the UX-1 robot developed in the UNEXMIN project for exploring flooded mines. The project coordinator, Norbert Zajzon, presented the project in the morning session. The UNEXMIN stand displayed the robot, and many guests visited the stand, getting interested in this innovative solution. Besides, some of the potential end users were so engaged, that they were even interested in buying the UX-1 robot.

On Tuesday, the focus was Innovation, new technology trends and skills for raw materials. Here the presentations and discussions covered new technology trends in exploration, mining and processing, Skills for Raw Materials. Upcoming EIT Raw Materials, Horizon 2020 and ERA-MIN 2 call for proposals were also introduced. On Thursday, the two key themes were Raw Materials meeting societal needs and 3rd EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base Event. The INTRAW International Raw Materials Observatory, represented by W. Eberhard Falck, Vice-president, hosted the afternoon session, summarizing the highlights from previous sessions and analysing how the topics interlink between each other and how they create enabling conditions for the regions, industry and the well-being of society. The Observatory is the spinoff organisation of the EFG-coordinated INTRAW project on fostering cooperation in the raw materials sector between technologically advanced countries and the EU.

ROBOMINERS where EFG leads the communication and outreach activities has been presented with a poster submission. Vitor Correia (EFG Past President) was available to explain the project concept to the visitors. 

On the last day of the Raw Materials Week, EFG Team participated at two satellite events. In the morning the MinLand project final conference took place, concluding a successful Horizon 2020 project on mineral resources in sustainable land-use planning. EFG has contributed to the success by producing high quality visual materials from the results produced by the consortium: Fact sheet on the Cas Studies and #MinLandCases, Official project video, MinLand Manual for good practice guidance for practitioners booklet (ongoing).

In the afternoon, the EFG Team (Anita and Tamas) participated at the Public Acceptance and Social Impact of Mining and Minerals Recycling event. This event was co-organised by INFACT project, where EFG is leading the impact creation and dissemination.