The Role of (Electro)hydrometallurgy in Securing Defense and Critical Materials

Speaker

Associate Professor Amilton Barbosa Botelho Junior

Abstract

Critical raw materials (also known as critical minerals) are crucial for energy transition and the fundamental necessity of national defense resilience, and supply chains are increasingly vulnerable to geopolitical instability. This seminar explores (electro)hydrometallurgy as a technological bridge to achieving strategic resource autonomy through clean and circular processing routes towards sustainable mining. Examples will be discussed in the seminar that include recycling urban solid waste and wastewater, and mining waste. (Electro)hydrometallurgical processes offer a low-carbon footprint and capacity to recover materials from low grade sources, such as e-waste, spent batteries, and mining wastes. This seminar will also discuss novel technical and economic assessment for flexible processing to obtain materials that can be implemented worldwide. Adoption of advanced aqueous processing routes is strategic imperative to ensure a stable, domestic, and environmentally responsible supply of the materials that power our green future and protect our national security.

Speaker Bio

Associate Professor Amilton Barbosa Botelho Junior specialises in Hydrometallurgy in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He was previously a Postdoc Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (2024-2025), and Postdoc Fellow at Stanford University in the Department of Chemical Engineering (2023-2024). Amilton gained his Chemical Engineer degree, followed by MSc in Chemical Engineering, before being awarded his PhD at Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. He has been a Visiting Scholar at The University of British Columbia (2017-2018) in addition to The University of Queensland (2019). He was a Professor and supervisor in the Chemical Engineering graduate program at the University of São Paulo (2021-2025).

This seminar will be presented by Webinar only