February 2019

The ORAMA project focuses on optimising data collection for primary and secondary raw materials in Member States. A cornerstone to the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials is the development of the EU knowledge base on primary and secondary raw materials, commenced by a series of European-funded projects.

ORAMA addresses specific challenges related to data availability, geographical coverage, accessibility, standardisation, harmonisation, interoperability, quality, and thematic coverage in Member States. It focuses on WEEE, batteries, ELV, other mixed metal wastes and mining waste datasets.

SAVE THE DATE: ORAMA at Joint Research Centre workshop in Ispra, Italy, 13 June 2019

In order to convey the recommendations and technical guidelines developed by the project, ORAMA is organising a training and clustering event to complement the workshop on the Raw Material Information System, organised by the Joint Research Centre and taking place between 11-13 of June in Ispra (Italy). The ORAMA Workshop will take plance on the 13th June and will focus on the presentation of guidance and training material developed by the project for data optimisation for primary and secondary raw materials. During the morning of 13th June a joint session of RMIS and ORAMA networks will explain its outcomes and correlations with similar projects, while in the afternoon two parallel ORAMA training sessions – one on Primary Raw Materials and the other on Secondary Raw Materials - will take place. All stakeholders of the raw material community from exploration/exploitation, processing and data management will be welcome at the ORAMA event including representatives of government bodies, research, industry and NGOs. Registration will be open soon and more information will be available on ORAMA's website. 

Join the ORAMA network and receive more information about this event. 

ORAMA Workshop at World Resources Forum, Closing Loops Conference

The Workshop entitled “Optimizing quality of Information in Raw Material data collection across Europe" took place on the 25th February at the World Resources Forum conference in Antwerp. Stakeholders need different information at different stages of the value chain and the workshop's aim was to build a bridge between interested groups, develop practical recommendations and introduce best practice examples for specific product groups. In addition, the workshop discussed strategies for developing a robust knowledge base on secondary raw materials: if we do not know the whereabouts of secondary raw materials, if we do not know the magnitude of the urban mine, we cannot move towards circular material flows!

Attended by 34 interested stakeholders from government, industry and academia and chaired by Jaco Huisman (JRC), the workshop started with an introduction from Marcin Sadowski of EASME who presented the current and upcoming actions in H2020 and Horizon Europe. This was followed by short introductions on WEEE, batteries and vehicles from Michelle Wagner (UNU), Edouard Wagner (Fraunhofer) and Maria Ljunggren (Chalmers University) respectively.

The session incorporated lively debate with the different perspectives given by the different stakeholders providing useful direction for the project particularly with suggestions for actions, strategies and ways to improve data availability. 

Second Progress Meeting of the ORAMA project

The Second Progress Meeting of the ORAMA project was held at the Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS) in Ljubljana on 7-8 November 2018. Work package specific planning meetings took place during the first day and the progress in each WP was presented for the consortium during the second day.

ORAMA at the Raw Materials Week 2018

The ORAMA project was well represented during Raw Materials Week in Brussels during November. As well as giving presentations about the project specifics, ORAMA also hosted its own clustering event to get input into key areas of research in the project. At the workshop delegates discussed four key questions:

• How can raw material knowledge enhance EU competitiveness?
• How can we improve EU knowledge on Primary Raw Materials?
• How can we improve EU data collection and harmonisation on Secondary Raw Materials?
• How can we improve EU and global accounting of raw materials in supply chains?

Common themes that ran through the discussion were those of data harmonisation, setting of reporting standards and building a solid data collection infrastructure. All comments will be used to inform the development of the project.

Secondary Raw Materials datasets assessment

A central focus of ORAMA is to establish what data exists in member states, how this is collected and to then identify gaps and issues. A recent report (D2.2 Recommendations for improving SRM datasets and harmonisation) highlighted the findings of this research and made recommendations for improving data collection for batteries, end of life vehicles, WEEE and mining wastes. The report notes that for each of the waste groups, every Member State follows different approaches for compiling the information which is leading to inconsistencies and either under- or over estimation of the amounts placed on market and collected. This creates severe constraints on the availability of reliable data on secondary raw materials in Europe. However, the main recommendations do not suggest a complete overhaul of the existing statistical procedures, but rather a future orientation in the form of a step-by-step approach to link multiple, scattered sources to each other. It is felt that this research constitutes a small but important step towards a more detailed and focused understanding of our consumption and recycling patterns which in turn can steer society towards higher levels of circularity for valuable products, components and materials.

Issues that hinder raw materials data harmonisation

One aspect of the project has seen a focus on analysing the issues that hinder harmonisation of primary raw materials data in Europe and developing key recommendations on how this data can be better collected and managed in the future. The results are outlined in a report (Deliverable 1.2) and it is hoped this will enable provision of better European raw materials data for policy making and resource management. The next step is to investigate the specific issue of data regarding mineral resources and how this can be harmonised across European countries that use a wide range of different definitions, standards and classifications. The United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC) is being proposed as a tool to do this as many countries are already using it, or conducting pilot studies using it, and it is a flexible system designed for national or continental scale reporting.  Guidelines of how different countries may be able to convert their resources data into UNFC will be presented at the ORAMA workshop in Ispra in early June.

Hungarian stakeholder consultation

A national stakeholder consultation will be organized in Hungary as a special session at the XII. Annual Meeting of Mining in Hungary in Velence on 7th of March 2019. Synergies between ORAMA and other technological and non-technological projects will be discussed with a focus on the utilisation of results in professional mining management and the related data optimisation for primary and secondary resources.