WAp Project

Mining Waste Characterization For Optimised Management By Multidisciplinary Approach
_{Joint Bilateral Agreement – CNR of Italy and CNRST of Morocco}

This project addresses the environmental problem of waste with new strategies able to implement a competitive economy which transforms the mining waste into opportunities in accordance to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) strategies. The proposal falls within the framework of the European Green Deal in relation to the implementation of measures focusing on investing in cutting-edge research and innovation and preserving natural environment.

A smart economy minimizes the production of waste and promote its reuse as a resource for a new industrial process, moving towards a near-zero waste society with reduced environmental impact and improved quality of life.

In recent years due to difficulties to access to raw materials, resource depletion, increase in metal price and environmental pressures, the recovery of critical raw materials from wastes became priority thanks the appropriate innovative management strategies pointing to minimize polluting load impact, to protect human health, to contrast the ecological and water losses, the soil desertification and decay of landscape.

The mining waste of Sidi Bou Azzouz tungsten deposit (about 90 km north of Marrakech, Morocco) has high potentiality of raw materials to sustain the need of tungsten so the waste enhancement becomes a global challenge for present and future generation.

At the time of opening mining activity, the waste chemical, petrographic and mineralogical composition in this mining area was ignored or considered below the cut-off grade. Nowadays, the advances of the innovative technologies and markets make that deposits of wastes can be used as sources of raw materials.

In this project, we propose an integrated multidisciplinary approach of geochemical, mineralogical and geophysical characterization in relation of the spectral signature survey in order to map mining waste and estimate its extraction potential.

All this data will be useful to manage and convert the mining waste into new valuable and exploitable products and to reduce its environmental impacts.

Project coordinators: Dr. Daniela Guglietta and Prof. Amina Wafik

CNR and CNRST Research team members: Prof. Carmela Vaccaro, Dr. Aida Maria Conte , Dr. Rosamaria Salvatori, Dr. Ahmed Ait Touchnt, Prof. Rosalda Punturo, Dr. Simona Rosselli, Dr. Matteo Paciucci, Prof. Fadil Abdelali, Prof. Daafi Youssef