Materiały konferencyjne SEP 2025

8 5. CONCLUSIONS Rare earth elements (REEs) are classified as critical raw materials in the EU due to their essen- tial role in the European economy and modern technologies, combined with supply risks. Chi- na's dominance in REEs production from primary sources has driven the search for alternative sources, including mining waste. The ENVIREE project has identified two of the most promis- ing secondary sources in Europe: waste from gold enrichment at New Kankberg (Sweden) and accumulated waste from tungsten extraction at the Covas deposit (Portugal). As part of the ENVIREE project, pilot-scale enrichment technologies were developed for both sources, and an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) was conducted to evaluate their environmental impact. For REEs concentrate production from New Kankberg tailings, the process includes transport- ing gold tailings to a REEs processing facility, three stages of beneficiation, residue deposition, and land reclamation. In contrast, the process for Covas tailings involves excavating and trans- porting old mining waste, four stages of beneficiation, residue deposition, and land reclama- tion. The key difference between the two models is the origin of the input material. At New Kank- berg, gold tailings are sourced directly from an active gold production facility and sent for fur- ther processing. In Covas, however, the REEs recovery process relies on excavating mining waste accumulated over 30 years of tungsten extraction before processing. 6. REFERENCES [1] Van Gosen. B. S.. Verplanck. P. L.. Seal II. R. R.. Long. K. R.. & Gambogi. J. (2017). Rare-earth elements (No. 1802-O). US geological survey. [2] Rybak. A.. & Rybak. A. (2021). Characteristics of some selected methods of rare earth elements re- covery from coal fly ashes. Metals . 11 (1). 142. [3] Echeverry-Vargas. L.. & Ocampo-Carmona. L. M. (2022). Recovery of rare earth elements from mining tailings: A case study for generating wealth from waste. Minerals . 12 (8). 948. [4] European Parliament and Council. 2024. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) No 168/2013. (EU) 2018/858. (EU) 2018/17. Official Journal of European Union 1–67. March. https://eur- lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1252/oj. [5] Costis. S.. Mueller. K. K.. Coudert. L.. Neculita. C. M.. Reynier. N.. & Blais. J. F. (2021). Recovery potential of rare earth elements from mining and industrial residues: A review and cases stud- ies. Journal of Geochemical Exploration . 221 . 106699 [6] Łydżba. D.. Różański. A.. Sobótka. M.. Pachnicz. M.. Grosel. S.. Tankiewicz. M.. & Stefanek. P. (2021). Safety analysis of the Żelazny Most tailings pond: qualitative evaluation of the preventive measures effectiveness. Studia Geotechnica et Mechanica . 43 (2). 181-194. [7] Marques Dias M I, Borcia C G and Menard Y 2016 ENVIREE Deliverable D1.2 Report on the physi- cal chemical properties of available materials for the recovery of REE and Deliverable D1.3 chemical and mineralogical data of secondary REE sources [8] Menard Y and Magnaldo A 2017 ENVIREE Deliverable D2.1: Report on the most suitable combined pretreatment, leaching and purification processes [9] Grzesik, K., Kossakowska, K., Bieda, B., & Kozakiewicz, R. (2019). Screening Life Cycle Assess- ment of beneficiation processes for Rare Earth Elements recovery from secondary sources. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 214, No. 1, p. 012068). IOP Publishing.