ABSTRACT

Mining resources have played a leading role in the development of humanity, and the demand for these raw materials is expected to increase in the foreseeable future. In addition, new technologies also require the extraction of new critical materials. These trends pose various challenges as there is a limited supply of natural resources, and standard mining and mineral processing practices are associated with significant environmental impacts, such as waste generation, energy and water consumption, and CO₂ emissions. The circular economy (CE) has recently gained attention as a model to address such a complex scenario. This work analyzes the current efforts toward the application of CE in mineral processing. Although advances have been made, this review shows that the most significant material flows and environmental impacts occur near the production sites, which currently limits the closure of loops. Besides, mining industries are conservative regarding the adoption of new technologies or processing strategies, which is another hindrance to the implementation of the CE. Thus, and with few exceptions, while some sectors are already facing advanced stages of CE (namely, CE 3.0), the mineral processing field struggles to advance from the basic CE requirements (i.e, CE 1.0 to CE 2.0).

摘要

矿产资源在人类发展中发挥了主导作用，在可预见的未来，对这些原材料的需求预计会增加。此外，新技术还需要提取新的关键材料。这些趋势带来了各种挑战，因为自然资源供应有限，标准采矿和矿物加工实践与重大环境影响相关，例如废物产生、能源和水消耗以及 CO ₂排放。循环经济 (CE) 最近作为解决这种复杂情况的模型而受到关注。这项工作分析了当前在矿物加工中应用 CE 的努力。尽管已经取得了进展，但本次审查表明，最重要的材料流动和环境影响发生在生产现场附近，这目前限制了循环的关闭。此外，采矿业对采用新技术或加工策略持保守态度，这是实施 CE 的另一个障碍。因此，除了少数例外，虽然一些行业已经面临 CE 的高级阶段（即 CE 3.0），但矿物加工领域正在努力从基本的 CE 要求（即 CE 1.0 到 CE 2.0）推进。