The goal of the New Products and Uses theme is to find and develop practical applications for mining side streams, secondary materials, and other underused outputs so they can become high-value products rather than waste.  

This work is important because circularity in mining is not achieved simply by recovering more material, but by making sure those materials can be used in ways that are technically suitable, economically viable, and valuable to society.  

By connecting material research and processing results with real end uses, user needs, and business opportunities, the WP helps turn resource efficiency into real value. In the bigger picture, it supports circularity by reducing waste, improving the use of extracted materials, encouraging cooperation across sectors, and helping build circular thinking into mining and processing from the start. 

Theme leader organization: University of Oulu 

Contact person: Rajeswari Ramaswamy rajeswari.ramaswamy@oulu.fi