EURARE · Development of a sustainable exploitation scheme for Europe’s Rare Earth ore deposits

With numerous European industries heavily depended on imported REE raw materials, there is a need for EU to secure a viable supply of REE minerals as well as develop from the ground up the currently non-existent European REE extraction and processing industry. The goal of the EURARE project will be (i) to characterize the potential REE resources in Europe; and (ii) to research, develop, optimize and demonstrate technologies for the efficient and economically viable exploitation of currently available European REE deposits with minimum consequences to the environment.In the EURARE project, the mineral processing technologies currently used for the REEs minerals will be investigated for representative European REE ores, with a tendency for improvement by adopting new approaches for the complete ore utilization and minimal environmental consequences, establishing integrated mineral processing systems, with zero or close to zero tailings.The current state-of-the-art processes for REE extraction follows complicated, energy and resource intensive technologies. The EURARE project aims in developing novel cost-effective and resource-efficient REE extraction process, tailored specifically for European REE ore deposits as well as for European health, safety and environmental protection standards.As an added value to the work already described, EURARE will seek to demonstrate new sources for REE exploitation from industrial metallurgical waste which will not only be financial lucrative but will minimize the overall environmental footprint of the primary European metallurgical industry.Special attention in all cases will be given in health, safety and social issues, in light of naturally occurring radioactive elements.At the end of the EURARE project it is expected that a novel sustainable exploitation schema for Europe's REE deposits will have been established