ALUM is part of REEScue project for the recovery of Rare Earth Elements and Scandium from Bauxite Residues

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 16:57

· The REEScue research project, under European coordination, aims to ensure the European Union's supply in critical raw materials

· This innovative project supports the circular economy by extracting and capitalizing Rare Earth Elements and Scandium from bauxite residues or landfills

· ALUM is actively involved in the reduction of bauxite residues and in the reintroduction into the economic circuit of these by-products resulting from the alumina production process.

Tulcea, 27 January 2021 - ALUM S.A. (BVB, ATS - AeRO segment: BBGA), the only producer of calcined alumina in Romania, participates, together with Mytilineos S.A. (Greece) and ETI Aluminyum A.S. (Turkey) to the REEScue research project, carried out in cooperation with the academic partner Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi (Turkey) and under the coordination of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). REEScue aims to extract and capitalize on valuable metals from bauxite residues, ensuring the supply of the European Union with these essential raw materials needed in the high-tech industry.

"The REEScue project might offer us a new solution to support the circular economy at European level and supports our efforts to extract Rare Earth Elements and Scandium and to reach a potential near to zero-waste integrated process," said Gheorghe DOBRA, ALUM Chief Executive Officer. "Together with our European partners, other industry leaders and reputable educational institutions, we seek solutions for the recovery of Rare Earth Elements and Scandium from bauxite residues, thus supporting other European Union’s strategic industrial sectors and having a positive impact on the environment", added Gheorghe DOBRA.

REEScue will run for 36 months and offers a feasible approach to the selective recovery of rare earth elements and scandium from bauxite residue, being the first step in a potential near to zero-waste integrated process aiming at the sustainable recovery of bauxite residue.

The REEScue project is funded by the following grants

• General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of Greece, for the National Technical University of Athens NTUA and Mytilineos S.A.;

• Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) for Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi and ETI Aluminyum A.S.;

• Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (UEFISCDI) in Romania for ALUM.

ALUM is actively involved in the reduction of bauxite residues and in the reintroduction into the economic circuit of these by-products resulting from the alumina production process.

The Company is also part of another project, ReActiv, which aims to use bauxite residues to produce new cement products with a low CO₂ footprint.

Further details on the new REEScue project can be found here https://reescue.com/ and below is the announcement of the launch of the project.

For further information, please contact:

www.alro.ro

Florența Ghiță

Bucharest

Phone: +40 744 644 004

Email: investor.relations@alro.ro

About:

ALUM

ALUM is the only Romanian producer of calcined alumina, used for the production of aluminium and has an alumina refinery with a production capacity of 600,000 tonnes of alumina per year. The alumina produced by the company is supplied both on the domestic market to ALRO S.A., part of the Vimetco Group, and internationally. ALUM is listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange since December 1997 on RASDAQ and migrated towards the ATS segment, AeRO category in May 2015. Its shares are traded under the symbol “BBGA”.

ALRO Group

ALRO S.A. and its subsidiaries are collectively referred to as ''ALRO Group'' or ''the Group''. The companies part of ALRO Group are: ALRO S.A. – the aluminium producer, Alum S.A. – the alumina producer, Sierra Mineral Holdings I, Ltd. – the bauxite mining company, Vimetco Extrusion S.R.L. – extrusion processing business line, Conef S.A. – ALRO share portfolio management, Global Aluminium Ltd. – holding entity and Bauxite Marketing Ltd. Having this structure, the Group created an integrated production chain, assuring the raw materials for ALRO.

PRESS RELEASE

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The REEScue project, under ERANET-ERAMIN 3- REEScue: Integrated process for the recovery of Rare Earth Elements and Scandium from Bauxite Residues is launched.

On the 1^st of October 2020, the coordinator, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), in cooperation with its academic partner Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi (Turkey) and three industrial partners: Mytilineos SA (Greece), ALUM SA (Romania), ETI Aluminyum A.S. (Turkey), across three countries, launched the 36 months REEScue project (https://reescue.com/).

The aim of the REEScue project is to secure the supply of European Union in Critical Raw Materials and contribute to building a sustainable future and a circular economy, with waste valorization and extraction of metal values from secondary sources, such as landfilled or industrially produced bauxite residues.

Bauxite residue (BR) is the by-product of the Bayer process for alumina production contains considerable amounts of Rare Earth Elements (REEs), Scandium and other refractory metals. REE are considered Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) and European Union has included them in a priority list for their exploitation from indigenous resources.

Bauxite Residue is rich in REEs including Lanthanum (La), Cerium (Ce), Neodymium (Nd), Ytrium (Y) and especially in Scandium (Sc).

The project offers a feasible approach to selectively recover rare earth elements (REEs) and Scandium from BR through mineral acid leaching of the BR and sequential solvent extraction of the dissolved iron and scandium from the leachate. The leaching technology, as well as the iron and REE recovery, addresses all the drawbacks of currently available approaches including: control of iron concentration in the leachate, increased silica dissolution and the formation of silica gel and production of leachates with low REE and Sc concentration.

This process is a promising technique as the first step of a potential near-zero-waste integrated process for the sustainable valorization of bauxite residue.

The REEScue project is supported by grants of the:

Ø General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) from Greece for National Technical University of Athens NTUA and Mytilineos SA

Ø Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi and ETI Aluminyum A.S.

Ø Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI) from Romania for ALUM

The REEScue project is funded by grants. Regarding the grant awarded by the Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (UEFISCDI) in Romania, it was awarded through the financing contract 182/2020.

Also, additional details related to the new REEScue project funded by the Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (UEFISCDI) from Romania through funding contract 182/2020, can be found here:https://reescue.com/, and above are the announcements regarding the launch of the project.

CONTACT DETAILS

Prof. IOANNIS PASPALIARIS – Project Coordinator

Address: School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Iroon Polytechniou 9 str., GR15773 Zografou Campus, Athens, Greece

Email: paspali@metal.ntua.gr

Website: https://reescue.com/

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