GeMMe

GeMMe is a unique research group in Wallonia contributing to the development of innovative processes for an efficient management of mineral and metallic resources. Taking its roots in the traditional disciplines of mining, metallurgy and civil engineering, GeMMe experienced a deep mutation of its activities within the last ten years by making use of its know-how to unlock the values in industrial solid wastes, end-of-life consumers goods and complex georesources.

GeMMe is divided into three research units:

The Georesources-GeoImaging group led by Prof. Eric Pirard specializes in the development of vision-based characterization tools from outcrops to nanosized particles.

Sensor based Sorting
3D, Hyperspectral, RXT, LIBS acquisition driving Robot Sorting
Electron microscopy

The Mineral Processing & Recycling group under the responsibility of Prof. Stoyan Gaydardzhiev focuses on energy- and water-efficient processes in the comminution and treatment of ores and inorganic wastes.

The Construction Materials group headed by Prof. Luc Courard develops new and eco-friendly building materials making effecient use of industrial residues.

Each of these research units is backed by a well-equiped experimental lab to help develop its activities through a strategic innovative approach:

Laboratoire des Matériaux de Construction under the direction of Ir. Frédéric Michel

Mineral Processing, Process Mineralogy & Recycling Lab under the direction of Ir. David Bastin

Research

Main activities

  • hydrometallurgy
  • geometallurgy
  • sensor based sorting and characterization
  • construction materials
  • Earth observation applications related to the extractive industry

Projects in Hydrometallurgy cover the recovery of metal from fine shredder residues, the recovery of high technologies metals from electrical and electronic metals, the purification of rare materials, etc.

BIOLIX : Bio-hydrometallurgical recovery of high technologies metals from waste electrical and electronic metals

PHOENIX : Bio-hydrometallurgical recovery of metals from fine shredder residues

SOLARCYCLE : Research and development of technologies for dismantling, desencapsulation, purification and recycling of rare materials in end-of-life photovoltaic units

IPRIS : Improved processing routes for secondary and primary resources used in iron and steel-making

Projects in Geometallurgy are various from geophysical modeling to pulp mineral characterization of particules in pulps. Up to date acquisition and modelling tools are used. Our expertise in modelling,  statistics and artificial intelligence are our added value.

GALEM : Geophysical Approach of Lead-zinc Mineralization of the synclinorium of Verviers

RELATE : Lithological mapping on drill cores through combined measurement of mechanical and optical properties

PULPMIN : Mineral Characterisation of Particles in Processing Pulp

OPTIMAG : On-line monitoring of particle size distribution, morphology and mineralogy

IMSIMI : Improved Sinter Mix Preparation Using Challenging Raw Materials

Projects in Sensor Based Sorting and Control use
– sensors such as 3D camera, hyperspectral camera, X-Ray Transmission, Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for the characterization of particles,
– pattern recognition for the classification and detection,
– robots and pneumatic ejection for the sorting.

PICKIT : Shredder Residue Sorting by Machine Vision

ILIADE : Integrated Light and Image analysis for Alloys Detection

ODISSEY : Online Devlopment In Spectral Sensing of materials for recycling

COGOLIN : Online Stone Size Measurement

Concrete Bubble : Concrete bubble quantification for classification

SALEMA : A Horizon2020 project, funded by the EU aiming to reduce critical raw materials in aluminum alloys of automobiles

 

Projects in Physical pre-processing use one of our common or remarkable equipment such as the Electrodynamic Fragmentation to selectively fragment products of interest.

EDF-HVC : Electrodynamic Fragmentation of High Value Compound & bulk materials with potentially recoverable substances

ICOGEN : Integration of COmposites for Greener Engine

 

Projects in the field of Earth observation and remote sensing aim to make use of multispectral spaceborne acquisitions for applications related to the extractive industry. GeMMe has been a greatly involved in the recent novel initiative RawMatCop that is supported by the European Commission (DG GROW) and EIT RawMaterials.

MinEODust: Spatiotemporal mapping of dust dispersion around mining sites using remote sensing

CopX: Geospatial mining transparency through Copernicus and MapX

 

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