Time and Dates: Thursday 25 April (9.30am - 6pm) and 26 April 2024 (9am - 4pm)

Main Venue: Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, High School Yards, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ, Scotland - UK

(with last session on 26 April, 12-4pm at Joseph Black Building, King's Buildings, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FJ)

Full event details at https://eil.ac/Sustainable-mining-and-critical-minerals

Join us and discover the latest research and innovative approaches to sustainable mining and metal recovery from experts at the University of Edinburgh. There will also be plenty of opportunity for networking.

Critical minerals are at the forefront of developments in both earth and space science. Not only are they essential for the vast array of electronic devices used by our rapidly decarbonising society but they will underpin capacity for construction, infrastructure and manufacturing in extra-terrestrial settings.

In both contexts, highly efficient and low waste/zero emission technologies are central to sustainable resource utilisation. Many conventional metal recovery approaches do not meet these criteria: e.g. copper (the gateway to co-occurring critical elements such as Co, Mo, Re, Te and Rare Earth Elements) mining per se generates ~50% of global tailings. Moreover, future waste generation will be exacerbated by the increasing use of low-grade ores.

Our Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)-funded conference will explore four key themes:

1. novel chemical methods for tailings wastes and e-wastes 
2. novel biological methods used in space and terrestrial bio-mining for ores and tailings wastes
3. possible nature-based solutions that involve plant/algal uptake of metals
4. analytical developments 

Please register below to secure your place. Select either "Register as a Guest" or “Login” if you have a University of Edinburgh UUN. You will receive a confirmation email upon successful registration that includes the online joining link. Please indicate your attendance mode. i.e. in-person or virtual.

For more information on how your organisation can work with the University of Edinburgh's world-leading expertise on critical mineral recovery please contact: 

Dr Stuart Simmons, Head of Business Development & Innovation, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Stuart.Simmons@ed.ac.uk +44(0)7888 918546

Dr Anna Kimmel, Business Development Executive, School of Physics and Astronomy, Edinburgh Innovations, Anna.Kimmel@ei.ed.ac.uk +44(0)7831 147056

For assistance with registration or any other queries, please contact the Edinburgh Innovations team on eievents@ei.ed.ac.uk