timmar.biogeochemistry.ro © 2013-2014

There are two directions with market potential: the economic reuse of tailing dams, of interest for SC Prospectiuni SA, and the market of environmental services, of interest of all partners.

Reuse of tailing dams. Through its participation in the TIMMAR project, the company Prospectiuni SA (www.prospectiuni.ro ) aims to contribute to the extending of database relating to:

• identification of medium- long- term market needs of minerals and chemical elements with increasing demand worldwide in different technological branches;

• setting out the feasibility of major capital investments over the next years in projects for exploiting tailing ponds resulting from mining activities, in Romania or from the SSE of Europe;

• identification, characterization and inclusion of some perimeters (min. 5) in the list of priorities of the business plans for the period 2013-2016;

• application of the results of the project (research methodology, tailing ponds processing, capitalization of products) to other similar perimeters in which social and natural environment conditions are appropriate;

• inclusion of the occupied fields by ponds dumps in the regional long-term spatial & land use planning programs at local, regional and national level, to establish strategies to control them, by applying the most appropriate restoration/rehabilitation plan that takes into account environmental, social and economic criteria

• collection of quantifiable information concerning the variation/mobility of hazardous metals, as the basis for constructing maps of local risk associated with these deposits;

• establishment and application of modern methods of restoration of the environment affected by the merge of economic re-operation of dumps tailings ponds works with rehabilitation, waterproofing of the bed of these deposits, reducing the risk of damage to active aquifers at local and regional or inhabited area from their vicinity.

The specific strategy for capitalizing the project results by Prospectiuni SA involves the promotion of the works of recovery of useful minerals/chemical elements in the at least 5 perimeter, starting with the period 2012-2013, applying the request for operating permits and/or licenses exploration – exploitation, in accordance with the methodology applied and controlled by the National Agency for Mineral Resources and/or other national regulations in force. From the total capital investments of Prospectiuni SA in research, promotion and exploitation of mineral resources in Romania in the period 2013-2016, it is expected the associated fund for tailing ponds to attain an annual minimum of 20% of total amount.

Environmental services. The total market potential for risk assessment and remediation of contaminated Romania sites is estimated to about 14 billion Euros, of which one billion for sites related to mining industry (*** 2009). This is an under estimation, because does not include secondarily polluted sites, resulted from the dispersion of toxic elements in floodplains downstream mining areas. The corresponding market at European level is at least one order of magnitude larger (EC 2006). Potential clients are of several categories: public ones of national level, public ones of local level, and private ones, and also consortiums of private and public actors in common projects. We have obtained letters of interest in the direct applications of the project from many potential clients (figure 2). A full stakeholders / marketing analyses are included as an activity of the project.

Figure 2 Letters of interests for the results of the project expressed by public and private stakeholders involved in the management of mining areas

From the Ministry of Economy

From the Ministry of Environment

From the “Romanian Waters National Administration”

From the city of Zlatna administration

From CupruMin S.A. mining company