Powder engineering as a strategic lever in mineral processing

Harnessing powders to tackle future industrial challenges

Powder engineering involves all operations that transform metallic, mineral or chemical materials into fine particles smaller than 100 µm, up to nano powders. This field has become a strategic area in the mining and metallurgy industries, helping extract as much value as possible from critical resources, while meeting the highest standards of performance, purity, traceability and sustainability.

Meanwhile, new technological approaches are paving the way to produce complex, high-performance metal components with significantly improved material and energy yields. However, these new approaches also introduce added risks that must be managed as part of broader efforts to develop production capacity for powders made from critical and strategic metals and minerals.

Designing these powders requires precise control over their size, particle size distribution, shape and reactivity, all while complying with the health and safety standards specific to each powder and managing the technological risks of new approaches. This complexity represents a major technical and economic challenge and makes BBA's integrated expertise more essential than ever.

Precision engineering for strategic materials

At BBA, we support clients at every stage of the value chain, from selecting specialized equipment to designing and building safe, efficient and sustainable processing facilities. Our experts guide technological choices based on targeted properties (e.g., size, shape, porosity or reactivity) and the type of facility needed (e.g., laboratory, pilot plant or industrial facility).

The materials involved—such as lithium battery cathodes (NMC, LFP, NCA), graphite or silicon-based anodes, metal powders for 3D printing (titanium, Inconel, aluminum), catalysts, metal oxides or other combustible, pyrophoric or toxic powders—all require specific technical approaches. Depending on the required properties, we master and adapt various processes, including:

• Mechanical processes: sieving, fluidization, classification, compaction, agglomeration, ultrafine grinding, spheronization, mixing and homogenization, and conveying
• Pyrometallurgical processes: gas or plasma atomization, metal evaporation, heat treatment in controlled atmospheres
• Hydrometallurgical processes: selective precipitation, controlled crystallization, filtration in reactive media

Tailored expertise for critical markets

Our clients operate in vital and strategic growth sectors, including batteries, chemicals, metal 3D printing, materials for the energy transition and critical metal recycling. They all require a tailored approach that ensures precise process control, strict regulatory compliance, carbon footprint reduction and ongoing competitiveness.

Each powder production technology comes with specific constraints, such as inerting atmospheres, dust explosion risks, real-time particle size control, cross-contamination management and selection of compatible engineering materials. Our expertise is rooted in an integrated understanding of industrial systems and a rigorous, multidisciplinary approach, suited to the demands of challenging production environments.

Material processing as a lever for sustainable performance

As the demand for strategic materials grows, producing high-value-added powders requires strict control over every manufacturing parameter. This makes powder engineering a key skill that supports innovation, optimizes industrial performance, fosters growth and addresses the new challenges of sustainable transformation.