Optimising our industrial processes
How can the mining and metal industry be transformed to address this century's key challenges? In response to this recurring theme and to continually enhance our competitiveness and agility, we constantly strive to improve our extraction, development and transformation processes.
- Optimising our recycling processes for a wide range of metals
- Transforming our industrial processes, reducing energy consumption and emissions
- Developing new technologies to meet tomorrow's challenges, primarily the energy transition
- 24M€ dedicated to innovation
Paving the way for the future
Our goal is to consolidate our positions on the markets of the future, such as powder metallurgy and lithium for electric car batteries. Moreover, we aim to find answers to the needs of the new digital and renewable energies industries.
- Research in the recycling of numerous metals and their mineral derivatives – including the lanthanide series of rare earths prized by the high-tech industry.
- Developing new products together with our customers: new grades of steel, superalloys, special steels, etc.
- Work in sectors of the future such as nickel, lithium and powder metallurgy.
- Research into the recycling of processed materials, such as lithium and nickel cadmium.
Protecting people and preserving natural balances
Our teams work every day to deliver on a triple commitment: to protect the health of employees and populations, ensure the safety of facilities and limit environmental impacts.
- Updating risk analyses for processes in development
- Enhanced medical monitoring for workers exposed to a particular risk
- Continual analysis of industrial risks along with routine corrections
- Reducing our environmental footprint is incorporated into all of our work and deploying industrial processes to reuse materials and generate value from waste under a principle of circular economy loops
Sharing an open innovation culture
Working together make better progress faster. Below is a summary of the "agile method" of value creation that we employ at every level in the Group, and which is underpinned by our open innovation approach.
- Research partnerships with numerous research institutes and universities: the BRGM (Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières), the University of Trondheim in Norway, the KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) and the semi-public research centre MEFOS in Sweden
- Creation of joint laboratories with prestigious universities: Chimie Paris Tech (École Nationale de Chimie de Paris), Mines Paris Tech, École Centrale Paris, École Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Nancy and Université Paul-Sabatier in Toulouse
- Participating in projects initiated at Competitiveness Clusters in France and major Europe-wide research projects
Building a reputation as a European centre of excellence
Unveiled in 2019, Eramet Ideas, our new innovation centre dedicated to extractive metallurgy and recycling, brings together unique areas of expertise on a single site in Trappes.
- 150 technicians, engineers, project managers, technology specialists and experts in the fields of mineral development and enrichment, research into metal alloys and composite materials, recycling, etc.
- Ultra-advanced observation tools (such as the first microscope in France featuring the QEMSCAN mineralogy analysis software), advanced laboratory tools for conducting discontinuous metallurgy tests, and pilot and semi-industrial facilities for conducting long-term testing campaigns.
- Research teams working in close collaboration with line personnel, from the definition of programmes through to the implementation of innovations
- 150 experts and technicians
- 10 collaborative projects in Europe
Find out about some of Eramet Ideas’ collaborative projects :
- EuGeLi Project: the production of lithium “made in Europe”
- Go-4-0 Project: recycling the manganese in the muds and dust in pyrometallurgical ovens
- ReLieVe Project: recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles
- SPYRO Project: interactive training on pyrometallurgy
