Alta Zinc Ltd (ASX:AZI) has received funding support for an innovative remote sensing and laser project through the EIT RawMaterials program at Gorno Zinc Project in northern Italy.
EIT RawMaterials was established by the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) under the EU’s initiative to secure sustainable access to vital raw materials as key enablers for a globally competitive, green, and digital Europe.
Promisingly, EIT RawMaterials is demonstrating EU’s support for Gorno by funding an innovative program to enable ‘locked up’ high-grade zinc, lead and silver mineralisation to be mined without additional mine development.
Alta is aiming to provide a European source of very high-grade, clean, low-impurity zinc and lead concentrates from Gorno by 2024.
Clean and environmentally responsible
Alta Zinc managing director Geraint Harris said: “We are delighted with the positive response our activities have received from Pier Luigi Franceschini and the EIT RawMaterials team in Rome, and it is rewarding to be able to contribute to the raw materials requirements of Europe with the pioneering re-start of base metal mine in a historic mining country such as Italy.
“Our goal is to turn Gorno into one of the cleanest and most environmentally responsible new breed of base metals mines coming on stream in Europe.
“Their actions show that the EU is taking concrete steps towards ensuring reliable, secure and sustainable access to raw materials; and we are happy to be contributors to a globally competitive, green, and digital Europe.“
Reducing surface environmental impact
Alta is designing Gorno to be one of the few mines worldwide with no long-term surface tailings storage.
A key feature of the re-development plans for Gorno is that plant tailings will be permanently stored in the mined stopes as cemented paste backfill, which means tailings do not need to be stored above ground thereby significantly reducing the surface environmental impact.
A cemented paste back-fill containing the mine tailings will provide support to underground openings, thereby increasing roof stability to allow for maximum extraction of the mineralisation with minimal additional development.
The EIT RawMaterials funded program enables cutting-edge assessment of the historical voids to maximise storage capacity.
Reliable access to key raw materials
Alta became a member of the ERMA in January 2021, aligning with the EU’s aim of providing reliable access to key raw materials and recognising the benefit of being part of a unique network of organisations across the raw materials value chain.
ERMA’s purpose is to contribute to ensuring reliable, secure and sustainable access to raw materials as key enablers for a globally competitive, green and digital Europe.
EIT RawMaterials coordinates with ERMA to unlock multi-country, public and private investment potentials and supports strategic developments with potential for innovation and high-value job creation in the raw materials sector to secure access to critical and strategic raw materials, advanced materials, and processing know-how for EU’s industrial ecosystems.
“Unique environmental qualities”
EIT innovation hub director Pier Luigi Franceschini said: “We are very happy that EIT RawMaterials is able to support this innovation program at Gorno, and we recognise the project’s unique environmental qualities.
“The Booster program support for Gorno is evidence that EIT RawMaterials has an agile process to bring suitable raw materials projects into an investment channel.
“We look forward to engaging the team at Gorno further with our networks towards achieving our shared vision of a green and resilient Europe, where raw materials are a major strength of the EU economy.”
Reduced CO2 footprint
Alta’s test work has shown that the Gorno mineralisation is highly amenable to XRT sorting technology which reliably separates the valuable metal ores from the host rock (limestone).
This has been shown to reduce the amount of ore fed to the processing plant by half, with minimal loss of contained metal, which significantly cuts the size of the processing plant required with savings to the initial capital cost and ongoing maintenance costs and it is estimated that energy consumption can effectively be halved compared to traditional methods.
Once the host rock is separated from the metallic minerals by the XRT technology it can potentially be reused as a saleable limestone by-product which will offset aggregate produced from quarries for use in the circular and low-carbon economy.
All of these savings will be measured to calculate the reduced CO2 footprint of the operations.
Cleanest and highest-grade zinc
The European smelter industry produces 2.2 million tonnes per annum of zinc metal of which more than 55% is imported.
Many of these imported concentrates are shipped over significant distances and are containing high levels of deleterious elements which makes it difficult for the smelters to dispose of the smelter waste within environmental guidelines.
Alta can produce some of the cleanest and highest-grade zinc and lead concentrates available globally at Gorno.
These high purity products would provide a traceable, clean and environmentally sustainable metal supply to European smelters with very low transportation and environmental waste impact compared to other market sources of concentrates.
- Ephrems Joseph