Circular Economy Perspectives on Mining Residues, Mineral Processing Residues, and Excavated Geomaterials
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 899
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mineral raw materials; ore deposits; construction materials; secondary raw materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: waste management; resource assessment and classification; circular economy and final sinks; material flow analysis
2. Industrial Ecology Programme, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7003 Trondheim, Norway
Interests: construction aggregates; mineral resource classification; material flow analysis; GIS and geodata; building information modeling (BIM)
Interests: economic geology of critical metals; GIS and remote sensing of mining regions; material flow analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Mining residues, mineral processing residues, and excavated geomaterials are among the largest mass flows in our society. These flows will inevitably continue to increase alongside growing populations and resource consumption [1,2]. As they are predominantly landfilled, the pressures they induce on land, communities, and the environment will intensify. New management approaches are therefore needed to bolster resource efficiency, reduce environmental impacts, and promote knowledge sharing. Circular economy perspectives can help to reduce and turn residues and unused ground and rock excavation materials into environment-friendly and socioeconomically acceptable products, thus supporting mineral resource governance as defined by the United Nations Environment Assembly [3].
This Special Issue collects reviews and research papers addressing mining residues, mineral processing residues, and excavated geomaterials in a circular economy perspective. It welcomes contributions related to monitoring and management strategies, new processing methods, case studies, datasets, standards, and tools that support material recovery and holistic management practices. The general topics include but are not limited to economic, environmental, and social assessments, policy analyses, management plans and practices, resource/reserve classification and reporting, mineral statistics, new technologies, impacts on local communities, and scenario models for future waste production, or similar. Reports on completed and ongoing industry projects and on international collaborative research and networking projects or workshops are also welcome.
References
- OECD (2019). Global Material Resources Outlook to 2060. Retrieved from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/publication/9789264307452-en.
- IRP (2019). Global Resources Outlook 2019: Natural Resources for the Future We Want, B. Oberle, et al. United Nations Environment Programme, International Resource Panel: Paris, France. p. 158. Retrieved from https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/27517/GRO_2019.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.
- UNEP (2019). Mineral resource governance, in UNEP/EA.4/Res.19, United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme. United Nations Environment Programme: Nairobi, Kenya. p. 3. Retrieved from https://www.informea.org/en/decision/mineral-resource-governance#decision-body-field.
Dr. Gorazd Žibret
Dr. Ulrich Kral
Mr. Mark Uwe Simoni
Dr. Tim Werner
Dr. Aaron W. Johnson
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- material recovery and recycling
- mine waste
- tailings
- mine spoils
- overbuden
- metallurgical residues
- excavated soil and rock
- material flow analysis (MFA)
- raw material supply
- resource efficiency
