The Futures of Critical Raw Materials in Europe explored at the 2024 Futures Conference in Turku

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On the past 13th and 14th of June, La Palma Research Centre was present at the 24th Futures Conference organised by the Finland Futures Research Centre & the Finland Futures Academy, from the University of Turku, in cooperation with the Natural Resources Institute Finland. Participation in this event was linked to the CIRAN project. The theme of the 2024 Futures Conference edition was the “Futures of Natural Resources”, consisting of a pre-Conference virtual programme (4th of June) and two full days of keynote lectures, parallel sessions, and participatory workshops, altogether generating a space for knowledge-exchange, experience-sharing, and fostering transdisciplinarity around the foresights and future alternatives for the preservation, protection, regulation, use, and application of natural resources.  

It was in this context, that the EU-funded CIRAN project was represented by LPRC’s researcher Helena Robert i Campos, who hosted a participatory workshop on Task 3.3 ‘Nexus of societal vulnerabilities’ within WP3 (Nexus between Policy Decisions and Drivers of Change). The workshop encouraged participants to delve into future possible scenarios for Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) in Europe. CRMs are essential components in various high-tech industries, including renewable energy, electronics, and automotive manufacturing. As Europe strives to transition to a green development model, ensuring a stable and sustainable supply of these materials has become a top priority.  

The event brought together leading experts, policymakers, and industry stakeholders to discuss CRM autonomy and the foresights for their extraction in European environmentally protected areas, highlighting the relevance of circularity across value chains and consumption patterns, as well as the transformative trends in the extractive and mining sectors, such as the advances in robotisation and remote-sensing techniques.

Participants were introduced to the four Future Scenarios for 2035 generated by LPRC from the outcomes of previous foresight exercises such as the Delphi Survey. Afterwards, participants had the chance to actively discuss and outline the key drivers and changes that need to happen to support sustainable CRM management. These included, among others: investment in recycling infrastructure to recover CRMs from end-of-life products, funding and the need to strengthen partnerships with non-EU countries to secure a diversified supply chain and fair CRMs cooperation.

To conclude, the LPRC team acknowledges the great engagement of workshop participants and thanks them for their valuable contribution to the development of the CIRAN project. It equally thanks the organising institutions for successfully coordinating another edition of the Futures Conference. Looking forward to participating in Turku next year! 

For more information on the CIRAN Project and upcoming events, please visit the CIRAN Project Website.

TIMREX Steering Commitee Meeting, 27-28 June 2024, Wroclaw, Poland

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La Palma Research Centre joined the TIMREX consortium in Wroclaw, Poland, on the 27-28 June 2024, as part of the project’s yearly Steering Committee meeting. This event was hosted by the partner Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.

The meeting began with welcome words and practicalities, followed by the overview of the agenda and the objectives of the meeting. After that, all partners engaged in discussions about administrative topics and workplan with regards to the different components of the TIMREX programme. The latest editions of the Summer School and Applied Field Exploration course were presented, including the feedback provided by the participating students, followed by discussions on how to improve these actions for next students. The Exploration entrepreneurship course, a strong entrepreneurial component of TIMREX programme, was also presented.

After that, the partners overviewed the thesis topics of the students and their internship activities as TIMREX students. The purpose of this section was to monitor the academic progress of the students, and to plan the necessary actions to fulfill the objectives of the study programme. LPRC presented the work done on Communication and Dissemination matters and how the efforts are helping the project.

Finally, the partners engaged in discussing the targets to be met in the near future and to assess the possibilities to extend the partnership for additional years.

CRM-geothermal 3rd General Assembly, 3-5 July 2024, Munich, Germany

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La Palma Research Centre joined the CRM-geothermal partners in the most recent project General Assembly, hosted by GFZ Postdam in Munich, Germany, between the 3 and 5 July. Project partners presented the progress achieved over the past year, across all Work Packages.

The first day was dedicated to presentation of Work Package (WP) 1: Screening and mapping of CRM content in geothermal settings, WP2: Geological controls of CRM mobility, source and long-term sustainability in different geothermal settings and WP6: Dissemination, communication and exploitation. LPRC contributed to the presentations under WP6 on Communication and Dissemination. As the leader of the clustering task, aimed at identifying common topics and challenges with other European initiatives related to the project, LPRC introduced the task concept, highlighted past activities, and outlined future networking opportunities through events and conferences focused on raw materials and geothermal energy. Additionally, with the engagement of other partners, potential joint activities were identified and evaluated.

On the second day of meetings, LPRC led presentations on the Market Deployment task. This task focuses on bridging the technology used in CRM-geothermal with the market. It is a complex task that involves technological issues, political settings, environmental concerns, and social aspects of combined CRM and geothermal energy extraction. As the task is just beginning, the presentation involved discussing strategies and target audiences to build solid business plans and a market deployment strategy with all partners. This task is part of WP4: Deployment of the combined extraction of CRM and energy from geothermal fluids. Other WPs included 3: Development and optimisation of extraction technologies for CRM from geothermal brines and 5: Testing, validation, integration (of design requirements, systems and components).

The last was dedicated to a field trip to a geothermal plant in Laufzorn.