euronews futuris - New life for old metal mines

www.euronews.com The European Union imports huge amounts of metal. Yet buried deep in Europe's bowels is a treasure trove of copper, zinc and other precious metals. Researchers have been digging deep to uncover ways to put European mining back on the map and they're not short of ideas. Europe's deepest metal mine is seemingly unfathomable, at 1430 meters. For forty years, Pyhäsalmi mine has been a rich source of copper, zinc and pyrites. However the countdown to its closure has already begun as Pihlaja, a Mining Engineer, at Pyhäsalmi mine explains: "We currently produce around 1,4 million tons of ore per year but if the metal prices stay at the current level, we won't be able to maintain the mine beyond the end of 2018". Metal mining throughout Europe is facing similar problems but scientists are becoming a regular fixture at the Pyhäsalmi Mine in an attempt to breath new life into an old industry. Juha Kaija, a Finnish Geologist talks about his research: "Metal resources exist in Europe but extracting them is socially and economically challenging. Our research aims to develop more efficient exploration methods and also at imagining new ways to re-use mining waste materials to give European metal mining a fresh new impetus". Finding new ores in active or abandoned metal mines is the researchers´first aim and that is no mean feat, especially for old, deep deposits. Timo Mäki, Chief Geologist, at Pyhäsalmi mine describes the difficulties: "Here in Finland and also in ...
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