SIM² KU Leuven is delighted to announce that it has secured funding for a new EU H2020 MSCA-ETN project focusing on the Remediation and Reprocessing of Sulfidic Mining Waste Sites. The project is called SULTAN and is set to start on September 1, 2018, provided the Grant Agreement Procedure is successfully completed. SULTAN is a consortium of high profile universities, research institutions and companies located in Belgium, Germany, Finland, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands. In the next two months SULTAN will be looking for 15 PhD students with the following backgrounds: Geology – Chemistry – Chemical Engineering – Metallurgy – Environmental Engineering – Materials Engineering. More information will be made available soon. Graduating MSc students are invited to look out for updates concerning the 15 positions. (Leuven, 1/6/2018)
Abstract SULTAN
For more than 100 years the EU mining industries have been discarding their extractive-waste residues. Estimates suggest this represents 29% of the EU-28’s current waste output. When poorly managed these residues are a significant environmental hazard. Sulfidic Cu-Zn, Zn-Pb and Cu-Zn-Pb tailings pose the largest challenge, as they are prone to acid mine drainage. However, these tailings also contain valuable metals. Recently, the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials launched a “call to arms” to transform the “extractive-waste problem” into a “resource-recovery opportunity”. Additionally, the EIP has warned about the acute shortage of talent in this sector. In order to develop a highly skilled work force, to mitigate environmental risks and to economically recover valuable raw materials, the ETN for the remediation and reprocessing of sulfidic mining waste sites (SULTAN) provides the first-ever training programme dedicated to the reprocessing of tailings. SULTAN has pooled the interdisciplinary and intersectoral expertise of leading EIT RawMaterials members, world-leading mining and chemical companies, covering all the links in the tailings-reprocessing value chain. SULTAN develops cutting-edge methodologies to assess the resource potential of Europe’s main tailings families (WP1) and explores eco-friendly mining chemicals to be used in advanced metal-extraction/recovery set-ups (WP2). SULTAN not only recovers the metals but also valorises the clean(ed) tailing residues in circular-economy applications, incl. inorganic polymers, green cements and ceramics (WP3). In WP4 a novel environmental assessment methodology is developed. The 15 SULTAN ESRs also benefit from a unique soft-skills training programme (WP5) and maximise the impact of their research through dissemination and exploitation (WP6). This will kick-start their careers as highly employable professionals in the EU’s tailings reprocessing/remediation sector, as well as for geological surveys, teaching and scientific organisations, and public bodies
Recruitment event
All applications proceed through the on-line recruitment portal on the SULTAN ²website. Candidates apply electronically for one to maximum three positions and indicate their preference. Candidates provide all requested information including a detailed CV (Europass format obligatory). During the registration, applicants will need to prove that they are eligible, according to the ESR definition, mobility criteria, and English language proficiency. The SULTAN Recruitment Committee selects between 20 and maximum 30 candidates for the Recruitment Event which will take place in Leuven (October 2018, to be confirmed). The selected candidates provide a 20 minute presentation and are examined by the Recruitment Committee. The final decision on who to recruit is communicated the day after the Recruitment Event. The selected ESRs are to start their research as quickly as possible (target: 1 January 2019).
General coordinator for ETN SULTAN:
- Prof. Philippe Muchez (KU Leuven)
- Philippe.muchez@kuleuven.be
General contact person for ETN SULTAN:
- Dr. Peter Tom JONES (SIM² KU Leuven & Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven)
- Peter.Jones@kuleuven.be
- +32 (0) 16 32 12 13 & +32 (0) 486 83 64 94
