RAWMINA will develop and demonstrate an innovative pilot system for the clean and sustainable production of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials (RMs) in the EU from Mine Waste (MW) resources. RAWMINA will implement and standardize an innovative energy, water- and cost-effective continuous pilot process for producing RMs. It will integrate novel bio-leaching and nano-based materials for Sb, Co, Ge and W selective recovery from MW from “unexploited/underexploited metal containing materials”. RAWMINA will improve EU competitiveness and create added value in RMs processing, refining and equipment manufacturing by developing a new circular business model as an alternative to traditional linear mining economy. RAWMINA will integrate different technologies that will be demonstrated (TRL7) with MW of diverse geological compositions from EU and non-EU mines demonstrating flexibility in processing of the innovative pilot system. The project will perform a techno-economic and sustainability assessment throughout the entire life cycle considering health, safety, socio-economic and environmental impacts; maximizing water/energy efficiency and waste/wastewater reduction. IP, exploitation and business plans will be developed ensuring market penetration, technology export and first exploitation plan. RAWMINA will transform MW into a resource, enabling marketable products recovery to be used in batteries, flame retardants, optical fibers and industrial tools. The project will create a CRM Recovery Helix to maximise clustering and will interact with local communities to gain EU citizens trust. It will increase resource efficiency and sustainability of EU industry, contributing to decrease EU CRM import dependency. Apart from sheltering the EU from possible shortages in CRM supply, the project will contribute to reduce production costs and environmental impacts, contributing to the objectives of the European Innovation Partnership on RMs.

Coordination and demonstration embracing all areas of IP4 and targets aiming to assist support ensure and promote a common technical approach across the IP4 to allow integrated and coherent Technical Demonstrations as outlined on Shift2Rail master plan. Te objective will be achieved through different activities involving and promoting the collaborative participation of associated projects (for members of Shit2Rail and from open calls) and the partners involved, through the close technical interface with the different projects and the coordination of the integration activities activities to support and achieve consistency and convergence amongst the different projects, feeding a reliable set of technical packages.

The European Union has underexploited potential to produce critical raw materials (CRM) and special metals, as stated in the Study on the EU’s list of Critical Raw Materials (2020). Concretely, the battery sector is considered as a key strategic sector for the EU due to the increased use of batteries in different important sectors such as electric mobility. Thus, METALLICO proposal presents a new opportunity for the European Union. It is composed by an strategic consortium along the value chain, including mining and industrial sites with primary and secondary sources of critical and battery metals (Li, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni); experienced partners to pilot novel processes for producing battery-grade materials based on previous projects and activities; industrial and SME end-users in the battery, cement, paint, and ceramic sectors; and partners to demonstrate the social-license-to-operate (including the support of government bodies), sustainability and commercial chances that the solution represents. Worldwide, these battery metals are predominantly in Chile, Australia, South Africa, China, and The Democratic Republic of Congo, representing a high risk for the EU in terms of supply shortage. For example, in the case of Li, the EU import reliance is 87% for lithium concentrates and 100% for refined compounds as there is no domestic refining . METALLICO includes 4 cases studies in the EU to recover: battery-grade Li2CO3 from a primary spodumene/lepidolite/petalite deposit; Co concentrates and battery-grade CoSO4 from a mine secondary resource (CLC); and Cu, Co, Mn, and Ni concentrates from metallurgical slag from a Pb refining company (KHGM) and secondary mine tailings (THARSIS). Upscaling of sustainable and innovative upstream and downstream processes will demonstrate the techno-economic recovery and production of these critical and important metals for the EU.

Mankind’s carbon footprint is the underlying cause of global warming. Reducing it drastically within the next few years is imperative and favouring public transportation will be a deciding factor in this race. New technologies have the potential to enable the creation of better public transportation systems, thus enticing citizens away from using private means. Today’s travellers indeed consider public transportation as a source of difficulties and a cumbersome way to travel. When riders choose their journeys, they are often left to fend for themselves. They have to figure out transfers between multimodal forms of travel and how to handle disruptions and re-plan their route, when not left stranded. In addition, the current variety and heterogeneity of services along multimodal journeys is another serious source of complication and frustration. Increasing the attractiveness of rail transport requires a novel and integrated solution that will be developed in the IP4 part of the Shift2Rail project. It will guide, support, inform, and even entertain users throughout their entire itinerary, adapting to unforeseeable interruptions and events in order to propose alternative routes, including in the first and last miles. A real door-to-door travel solution including all modes of transport will be developed along with new forms of traveller experiences aiming to transform the travel itself into an “ATTRACkTIVE” part of the journey. This proposal aims to implement both the Shift2Rail Trip Tracker (TD4.4) and Travel Companion (TD4.5), two major components to materialise this vision and deliver seamless door-to-door travel support encompassing both public and private transportation portions of a journey. This includes disruption handling, navigation and user centric ubiquitous applications as well as the required tooling and modular design to foster adoption and enable future refinements, new concepts and ideas.