FAME project coordinator Chris Broadbent of Wardell Armstrong International Ltd. (UK) receives the IOM3 Medal of Excellence (Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining) from Martin Cox, the IOM3 President, on 3 July 2018 in London.
© IOM3
The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), a prestigious institution in the mineral resources field, awarded its 2018 Medal of Excellence to FAME, the European research and innovation project on mineral processing.
This prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to science and practice in the mining industry. In 2018, it was awarded to a European research project for the first time.
A research and innovation project on critical and strategic metals production from deposits in Europe
The FAME project, conducted under the EU Horizon 2020 programme, aims to develop new processing methods for the production of critical and strategic metals from deposits in Europe.
The processes developed are dedicated in particular to the treatment and enrichment of European skarn, sandstone and pegmatite deposits mainly containing tungsten, lithium or tin, but also other critical metals such as indium.
Work under the FAME project has produced innovative treatment guidelines for several deposits in Europe, with continuous pilot testing now under way. This is helping to sustain European competences and expertise in the fields of mineralogy and ore processing.
BRGM contributions to FAME: mineral resources expertise and experimentation facilities.
The BRGM is partnering FAME as a member of a 17-partner consortium that includes 8 SMEs working with research establishments and universities.
The BRGM is providing its expertise in mineralurgy, especially as regards selective fragmentation and concentration processes (magnetic separation, centrifugal gravimetric separation), to help define the most appropriate treatments for extracting target minerals. Testing is conducted in the laboratory and at the pilot scale at the BRGM's experimentation facility in Orléans.