April 15, 2025 by Graham Merrington

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Graham was invited by Svemin, The Swedish Association for Mines, Mineral and Metal Producers, to present an update on recent work on the development of an approach to account for bioavailability for uranium in freshwaters at their conference in Skellefteå in April.

The meeting was attended by miners, geologists, regulators, scientists, researchers and experts in environmental law. Water-related issues were widely discussed, including the proposed revisions under the Water Framework Directive and how these may impact industry in Sweden.

Geogenic uranium presents a considerable problem for many metal mining and processing industries, as it often exceeds the Annex VIII EQS of 0.17 ug/L, even when relatively local background concentrations are accounted for. The work wca is undertaking is sponsored by Boliden and LKAB, and is aimed at developing a gBAM for uranium, that can better reflect the ecological and environmental reality of the exposures. This project is expected to finish in Spring 2026.

We will also be providing further updates of this work at SETAC Europe 2025 in the session “Scientific Advancements in the Fate and Toxicity of Metals: Data, Models, Tools, and Their Application in Environmental Regulations” (Session 3.04) on Thursday 15th May; the abstracts are available to review here and here.