In The Black ’20

Welcome to IN THE BLACK’20.

IN THE BLACK’20, focusing this year on “The safety of people and the planet through the application of technology”, is expected to generate renewed momentum to the EIT Raw Materials Community. In addition to strengthening the connections between KIC Partners, we aim to redefine future enabling strategies.

One of the common themes of these annual workshops has always been “remote control”. Due to lockdowns and travel limitations this year we have decided to remotely control the workshop from  Porto, connecting with participants over the internet. While this limits the hands‐on nature of the event, we can take comfort from the fact that it vastly reduces the cost of the event, its carbon footprint and of course the risk of spreading infection.

Last year we talked about the small incremental gains required to move to production‐scale underwater mining ‐ either inland or at sea. As we approach the realisation of this opportunity we need to focus on ensuring that the technology we develop provides a number of assurances.

To be successful, we need to:

• Remove or reduce the number of people in the mineral extraction area
• Remove or reduce the danger of the mining system to the planet from an environmental perspective
• Remove or reduce societal concerns over underwater mining

History shows that irrespective of profitability many mining proposals and indeed mature mining operations have been stopped due to; unacceptable safety risk to personnel or neighbours, environmental damage or the potential of it, and a failure to address societal concerns. Providing a safer, cleaner and more transparent solution is therefore imperative. Hopefully, this explains the choice of this years theme.

Event registration and the full programme can be found here!