Preface

The world needs raw materials, but people hardly welcome mining activities on their territory. “Not in my backyard” philosophy strongly manifests itself in developed and highly urbanized countries, such as the European ones. In this framework, revalorizing mining, mineral processing, and metallurgical residues can pave the way for more efficient exploitation strategies, better accepted by different societies and communities. However, supply proximity of (critical) raw materials will lead to multiple benefits for the local systems, such as creation of sustainable value chains; reduction of economic, social, and environmental transport costs; and improvement of the national security as the lack of raw materials is a serious threat. Designed and developed in this context, the EIT Raw Materials 2-year project INCO-Piles (2020–21) aimed to define best practices and promoted technology transfer for the recovery of critical raw materials (CRMs) in the Mediterranean and Balkans areas. The main activities performed by the project consortium were: • matchmaking and networking through two round tables gathering international experts and stakeholders; • analyzing the techniques, technologies, and regulation aspects related to the mining residues; • designing and applying a recovery strategy for a real pilot case in Greece; • evaluating the potential market of exploitable CRMs from stockpiles and tailings; • defining an environmental approach for sustainable recovery; • attracting the attention of young generations to the importance of the topic of CRMs recovery from residues. This book, inspired by the results achieved by the INCO-Piles Project and edited by Professor A. Chagnes and Dr. O. Chernoburova of the University of Lorraine, aims to provide a comprehensive contribution to approaching mining, mineral processing, and metallurgical residues as new sources of CRMs.