LOCOSU

The BMBF-funded LoCoSu project aims to identify and apply innovative low-cost approaches to characterize the abundance of critical raw materials using portable, high-tech field instruments. A team of German and African scientists will explore the use of these field tools in exploration, active mining, mining residues and wastes, and environmental surveys of mineralized materials. Our team will develop and improve methodologies to analyse mineral commodities, particularly those that are crucial to the high-technology industry, and will jointly elaborate a handbook for the usage of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and infrared (pIR) spectrometers... Our team will develop and improve analytical protocols for pXRF and pIR spectrometry of critical raw materials. The elaborated methodology will then be applied to selected case studies and tested under realistic on-site conditions. The selected case studies include: (1) REE-bearing mineral sands, Erongo region; (2) REE-rich Cu-Mine,..

Primary location: Aachen Germany