AVANTIS’ rationale is that Europe has a multitude of unexploited, low-grade V-bearing titanomagnetite deposits in Finland, Sweden, Greenland, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine. However, these deposits have a complex “spiderweb-like” mineral assemblage.

Without selective blasting, selective fragmentation and pre-concentration technologies to separate the Ti-rich ilmenite grains from the V-bearing magnetite, these deposits are not economically viable. Supported by a bespoke forensic geometallurgy, AVANTIS develops a novel selective-blasting approach that allows for rock excavation with increased mineral liberation at the blasting stage, and reduced energy demand in the crushing and grinding stages. Likewise, AVANTIS designs tailored, water-free and water-lean pre-concentration technologies that can produce two distinct pre-concentrates: ilmenite-rich, Ti-pre-concentrate and ilmenite-free, V-pre-concentrate. The water-lean method is also tailored to process V/Ti-bearing mining wastes from historical as well as current operations. The resulting flowsheets have a low net consumption of water and reduced GHG emissions during extraction.