r⁴- joint project

Winning of economically strategic materials from fine-grained residues from copper smelting

Theisenschlamm

The project aim is an application-related development of a procedure for the production of economically strategic trace elements. Using the example of Theisen sludge, these trace elements as well as valuable main metals should be obtained by the use of mineral-specific bioleaching and element-specific enrichment. Thereby, the variety of elements to examine, their big differences in concentrations and the difficult matrix is a scientific challenge. However, this ensures that the obtained results have general validity which can be used for the preparation of similar sulphidic materials with presumably less complexity. The objective of the project network is the production of all valuable elements from the complex Theisen sludge matrix by means of an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and economical procedure.

The interdisciplinary expertise of three research institutions, one university and three companies have been bundled to fulfil this objective.

Overview of the work packages:

Project partner:

Publications:

• KLINK C., EISEN S., DAUS B. , HEIM J. , SCHLÖMANN M., SCHOPF S. (2016): Investigation of bioleaching of fine-grained residues of copper smelting, Journal of Applied Microbiology 120(6), 1520-30.