Sustainable Mining and Processing of Mineral Resources

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure and honor to invite you to submit a research paper to this Special Issue dedicated to the field of sustainable minerals extraction and processing. Research-, technological development-, and application-related contributions as well as conceptual analyses and presentations of promising methods and techniques on mine planning and operation, mineral processing, environmental impacts assessment, monitoring, prevention and mitigation, risk management, land reclamation, post-mining land-use planning, and other related topics are all welcomed.

The global mineral extraction industry is in a process of rapid transformation. Although the main objectives of mining operations are still related to the optimization of productivity, elimination of deviations from quality specifications, and zero accidents, new challenges and restrictions have been added concerning climate change, increased demand, depletion of reserves, process automation, corporate responsibility, etc. These developments affect mining operations in various ways: coal mines that supply steam power plants must be closed, while new mines, which will produce critical minerals for the ongoing digital and energy revolution, must be opened. Both mine closure and mine development works must take place in a way that ensures the sustainable development of the areas that host or will host mineral extraction and processing operations.  

Governments, industrial partners, funding organizations, and academia are looking for strategies and synergies for an economically and socially justified transition to a low-carbon economy, acting in accordance with global sustainability goals and circular economy principles. At the same time, all the involved parties try to develop a conceptual framework, which will ensure that the increased demand for critical minerals should be met by increasing the rate of exploitation of mineral deposits and secondary sources, based on methods and techniques that successfully balance between economic growth, conservation of nature, and prosperity of local communities.         

In this context, this Special Issue entitled “Sustainable mining and processing of mineral resources” aims at contributing to the existing literature with papers related to the definition of the conceptual framework for sustainable mineral extraction and processing, the demonstration of successful practices for sustainable mine planning, operation, and closure, including stakeholder management and corporate responsibility issues and the review of literature in relevant topics. Emphasis will be placed on actions planning and implementation to eliminate the environmental, economic, and social impacts after the closure of mines and to enhance just development by adopting innovative land uses. Moreover, the papers included in this Special Issue will be related to the development of novel technologies to enable sustainable extraction of critical raw materials from mineral deposits and secondary sources.

Dr. Francis F. Pavloudakis
Dr. Christos Roumpos
Dr. Philip-Mark Spanidis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.