Project Description

The development of the European economy and the transition to renewable energy resources and waste-free technologies are highly dependent on mineral raw materials. From 2010 to 2023 the European Union defined 34 critical, and 16 strategic raw materials. Europe's ambition is a fully circular economy, in which demand can be satisfied by reuse and recycling; however, the stocks of secondary supplies and recycling rates are inadequate to meet the demand on critical and strategic raw materials (CSRMs) in the nearest future. The REXPro project is developed to support the Bulgarian society and industry in their “greentransition”, simultaneously with the upgrade of the capacity of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The Main aim is the application of intelligent methods and technologies for resilient and effective exploration and mining of primary raw materials in three main ore deposits types. We will work on opportunities to increase the extraction of metals and the concentration of CSRMs as by-products, to re-evaluate the intermediate and final waste product as a future source of raw materials while reducing the amount of mining waste. At the same time, environmental impact will be monitored in bottom and floodplain river sediments that are most suitable for monitoring of heavy metals in regions of mining activities.The methodology in REXPro is based on current knowledge of the topics of primary raw materials research. It integrates mineralogical-geochemical, geochronological, non-destructive magnetometric methods, and applications of harmonized European protocols for hazardous substances monitoring in river sediments. Open science practices will be an integral part of REXPro as they improve transparency, collaboration and dissemination of results. The project has the ambition and capacity to deliver the results and know-how to all stakeholder groups.

 Project funded by NextGenerationEU – contract № PVU-11 (BG-RRP-2.011-0040-C01); Mehanism for recovery and resilience- investment under C2I2 "Increasing the innovation capacity of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the field of green and digital technologies"