1st Edition
Minerals, Metals and Sustainability Meeting Future Material Needs
Minerals, Metals and Sustainability examines the exploitation of minerals and mineral products and the implications for sustainability of the consumption of finite mineral resources and the wastes associated with their production and use. It provides a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates the physical and earth sciences with the social sciences, ecology and economics.
Increasingly, graduates in the minerals industry and related sectors will not only require a deep technical and scientific understanding of their fields (such as geology, mining, metallurgy), but will also need a knowledge of how their industry relates to and can contribute to the transition to sustainability.
Minerals, Metals and Sustainability is an important reference for students of engineering and applied science and geology; practising engineers, geologists and scientists; students of economics, social sciences and related disciplines; professionals in government service in areas such as resources, environment and sustainability; and non-technical professionals working in the minerals industry or in sectors servicing the minerals industry.
1 Introduction
2 Materials and the materials cycle
Natural resources
Materials, goods and services
The material groups
The materials cycle
The recyclability of materials
Quantifying the materials cycle
3 An introduction to Earth
The crust
The hydrosphere and biosphere
Some implications of the basic laws of science
The biogeochemical cycles
4 An introduction to sustainability
The environmental context
A brief history of the idea of sustainability
The concepts of sustainable development and sustainability
Sustainability frameworks
A model of sustainability
5 Mineral resources
Formation of the Earth
The geological timescale
Formation of the crust
Minerals and rocks
Mineral deposits
Resources and reserves
Extracting value from the crust
6 The minerals industry
Mineral commodities
How mineral commodities are traded
The economic value of mineral commodities
The mining project cycle
The nature of the minerals industry
The economic and social impact of mining
The minerals industry and sustainable development
7 Producing ores and concentrates
Extracting rock from the crust
Beneficiating mined material
Examples of mineral beneficiation flowsheets
8 Producing metals and manufactured mineral products
Theoretical considerations
Metals
Cement and concrete
Glass
Other manufactured mineral products
9 Energy consumption in primary production
Direct and indirect energy and gross energy requirement
Embodied energy
Embodied energy and global warming potential
The effect of declining ore grade and liberation size on energy consumption
The lower limits of energy consumption
Energy sustainability indicators and reporting
10 The role of water in primary production
Global water resources
Water in the minerals industry
The embodied water content of metals
Water sustainability indicators and reporting
11 Wastes from primary production
Wastes and their origin
The types and quantities of direct wastes
Solid wastes
Liquid wastes
Gaseous wastes
The impact of wastes on humans and the environment
The international regulation of wastes
12 Management of wastes from primary production
Management of solid wastes
Management of liquid wastes
Gaseous wastes
Waste, effluent and emission sustainability indicators
13 Secondary materials and recycling
Options for end-of-life products
Drivers of recycling, reuse and remanufacturing
The benefits and limitations of recycling
Recycling terminology
Recovery, recycling and return rates for common materials
The energy required for recycling
The effect of recycling on resource life
Recycling materials from simple products
Recycling materials from complex products
Design for the environment
14 The future availability of minerals and metals
The determinants of long term supply
Potential sources of minerals
Crustal resources
Resources in seawater
Resources on the seabed
Summary and conclusions
15 The future demand for minerals and metals
The determinants of long term demand
Projections of the demand for mineral commodities
Materials and technological substitution
Dematerialisation
The IPAT equation
Summary and conclusions
16 Towards zero waste
The waste hierarchy
Reducing and eliminating wastes
Cleaner production
Wastes as raw materials
Waste reduction through process re-engineering
Industrial ecology
Making it happen
17 Towards sustainability
Closing the materials cycle
Market and policy based approaches to transitioning to sustainability
Possible global 'futures'
Summary and conclusions
APPENDICES
I A note on units and quantities
II A review of some elementary science
The nature of matter
Conservation of matter
Thermal energy and the laws of thermodynamics
Electromagnetic radiation
Heat transfer
III United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm Declaration, 16 June, 1972
IV The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 16 June 1992 - The Rio Declaration
V GRI Sustainability Indicators
VI Processing routes used for the extraction of the common metals from their ores
Biography
W. John Rankin has held academic and research appointments in South Africa, Canada and Australia. He was Director of the G. K. Williams Cooperative Research Centre for Extractive Metallurgy, Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Chief Scientist of CSIRO Division of Minerals. He has written over 100 scientific papers and 70 technical reports on extractive metallurgy and sustainable development.
