EMerald: Master in Resources Engineering (Innovative Education in Geometallurgy and Circular Economy) EIT RawMaterials Academy - EMerald

The Challenge

The EMerald master‘s program was created to answer the urgent need expressed by the European Union to create a resource-efficient Europe. As the EU recognized the importance of mineral and metal resources in our modern economy, it also realized that the raw materials industries were facing a critical skills shortage.

The EMerald master’s program aims to train a new generation of engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset and a global vision of the value chain, putting the extraction of mineral and metal resources on a circle that continues by collecting end-of-life products and recovering valuable materials out of urban mines (circular economy). Therefore, the master’s course will focus on two aspects:

• Bridging the gap between geological exploration and mineral processing by offering innovative education in geometallurgy
• Helping to close the loop in a resource-efficient way by forming professionals who know the processing challenges and the need to meet targets in terms of recyclability

Participating Universities

• University of Liège - Belgium
• University of Lorraine, ENSG Nancy - France
• Luleå Institute of Technology - Sweden
• TU Bergakademie Freiberg - Germany

Are you a student who is:

• Interested in sparking innovation in the raw materials sector?
• Keen to become entrepreneurial and start your own company?
• Interested in bridging the gap between geology and metallurgy?
• Curious to acquire an understanding of the whole raw materials value chain?
• Motivated to expand your professional network by studying with at least three European universities?

As an EIT-Labelled program, EMerald aims to nurture interdisciplinary engineers who possess not only a deep knowledge of resources but also a holistic view of the entire raw materials value chain and an entrepreneurial, creative mindset.

• Provides you with the opportunity to gain insight into the industrial world and to raise your awareness and understanding of the whole raw materials value chain through professional seminars and technical visits
• Offers many courses targeted to facilitate the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills. You will learn how to work in teams and communicate your results to a broad public. In certain courses, you will conduct real case studies from data integration to the estimation of resources, including economic aspects
• As an EIT-Labelled program, EMerald aims to nurture interdisciplinary engineers who possess not only a deep knowledge of georesources, but also a holistic view of the entire raw materials value chain and an entrepreneurial, creative mindset.
• Receives support from leading companies who have an advisory role in the program through a Strategic Advisory Board (SAB), which ensures that the courses of the program meet their professional expectations

Between the first and the second year, the EMerald master‘s organizes a summer business school, a three-week intensive course which will take place in Freiberg in August.

As an EMerald student, you will get the opportunity to take solid management courses in finance, marketing, business modeling, and operations management, providing you with key insights into how engineering solutions can be applied to, and taken up by, society and industry.

Program Structure

EMerald is organized into four semesters and accounts for 120 ECTS or 30 ECTS per semester

The first year of the program aims to harmonize students’ knowledge and help them find the right balance between resource characterization and modeling, and processing and management techniques (multidisciplinarity). The thematic courses offered by the two universities (ULiège and UL) are complemented by a strong program to develop transversal skills. Industry experts and invited scholars to bring in key contributions to corporate social responsibility, economics, life cycle analysis, and other essential aspects of modern sustainable engineering operations. All courses offer a blend of theoretical lectures and practical work in the labs. Students often work in groups on a real case study, discovering possible processing routes for complex ores and waste materials. The third semester offers students the option to specialize more upstream at LTU (primary resources) or downstream at TUBAF (secondary resources). The final semester can be spent in any of the aforementioned institutions depending on the thesis specialization. Regardless of the location, the master thesis will be completed in close collaboration with an industrial partner or a research center that will also host the students for an internship.

The knowledge and skills EMerald graduates gain are highly valued in the industry and beyond. Not only are EMerald graduates qualified to work in the fields of mining, building materials (cement, aggregates), non-ferrous metals production, and circular economy of metals and mineral chemistry; possible career paths also include working for:

• Geological surveys
• Junior exploration companies
• Investment banks (resources sector)
• Venture capital (resources sector)
• EU Commission (raw materials and industry)
• National/regional governments (mining laws, implementing circular economy, mineral industry)
• EMerald also prepares you for further study (PhD) in mineral processing, geometallurgy, resources/reserves estimation, process development, mineral industry, etc.