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Titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), vanadium (V), garnet, and rare earth elements (REO) and their associated minerals are essential for modern society. Despite this, comprehensive public u...

Titanium and zirconium are vital and often irreplaceable components of modern infrastructure and technology. As international trade routes are challenged, and consumers are increasingly aware of sustainable mining practices, it has become imperative to accurately understand where these minerals are sourced from and in what qualities and quantities. Despite investigation by various government groups, consultants, and scholars, there remain significant differences in global production assessments for titanium and zirconium minerals, particularly for ilmenite and titania slag. This paper investigates this by collating and analyzing publicly available historical data on a country and company basis, providing an analysis of production trends over time, commenting on emerging trends and their relevance to sustainable mining. To provide a complete picture of titanium and zirconium production, this paper also provides evidence of declining titanium and zirconium grades in heavy mineral sand mines. Despite there being some examples to the contrary, the majority of production data and reserve data from existing mines show that these deposits are experiencing declining grades. Overall, there remains a need for improvement in reporting of these minerals to facilitate a modern understanding of the sustainability of the sector.

Recent zircon supply disruptions and the increasing demand for TiO2 in pigments has focused attention on the adequacy of known and anticipated resources, and the ability of current suppliers to meet future demand. Additionally, there is now a greater focus on the environmental impact of sulfate- and chloride-route pigment production, especially in China. These methods require different types of titanium feedstocks, each having different levels of availability. Despite investigation by various government groups, consultants, and scholars, there remain significant discrepancies in both production and resource assessments. The few publically available studies do not take into account these complexities. Here we review the public sources for information on zirconium and titanium production and resources using Australia as a case study, factors affecting resource availability, the complexity of titanium and zirconium feedstocks, their suitability for end-uses, their commercial properties, supply drivers. We also provide a thorough history of the titanium and zirconium industry, an overview of deposit geology & ilmenite alteration terminology, logistics, mining and processing techniques, as well as an examination of each of the major co-products of titanium and zirconium extraction.

Metal mining provides the elements required for the provision of energy, communication, transport and more. The increasing uptake of green technology, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy, will also further increase metal demand. However, the production lifespan of an average mine is far shorter than the timescales of mineral deposit formation, suggesting that metal mining is unsustainable on human timescales. In addition, some research suggests that known primary metal supplies will be exhausted within about 50 years. Here we present an analysis of global metal reserves that suggests that primary metal supplies will not run out on this timescale. Instead, we find that global reserves for most metals have not significantly decreased relative to production over time. This is the result of the replenishment of exhausted reserves by the further delineation of known orebodies as mineral exploration progresses. We suggest that environmental, social, and governance factors are likely to be the main source of risk in metal and mineral supply over the coming decades, more so than direct reserve depletion. This could potentially lead to increases in resource conflict and decreases in the conversion of resources to reserves and production. Future availability of metals is likely to be constrained primarily by environmental, social and governance factors, according to an analysis of reserve, resource and production figures which show that supply has matched demand over the last 60 years

Mining is often portrayed as a contributor to sustainable development, especially so in developing countries such as Papua New Guinea (PNG). Since 1970, several large mines have been developed in PNG (e.g. Panguna, Ok Tedi, Porgera, Lihir, Ramu) but always with controversial environmental standards and social impacts often overlooked or ignored. In PNG, mine wastes are approved to be discharged to rivers or oceans on a very large scale, leading to widespread environmental and social impacts - to the point of civil war in the case of Panguna. The intimate links between indigenous communities and their environment have invariably been under-estimated or ignored, leading many to question mining's role in PNG's development. Here, we review the geology of PNG, its mineral resources, mining history, key trends for grades and resources, environmental metrics (water, energy, carbon), mine waste management, and regulatory and governance issues. The study provides a unique and comprehensive insight into the sustainable development contribution of the mining industry in PNG - especially the controversial practices of riverine and marine mine waste disposal. The history of mining is a complex story of the links between the anthroposphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that the scale of environmental and social impacts and risks are clearly related to the vast scale of mine wastes - a fact which remains been poorly recognised. For PNG, the promise of mining-led development remains elusive to many communities and they are invariably left with significant social and environmental legacies which will last for decades to centuries (e.g. mine waste impacts on water resources). Most recently, the PNG government has moved to ban riverine tailings disposal for future projects and encourage greater transparency and accountability by the mining sector, including its interactions with communities. There remains hope for better outcomes in the future.

The rare earth elements (REE) are vital to modern technologies and society and are amongst the most critical of the critical elements. Despite these facts, typically only around 1% of the REE are recycled from end-products, with the rest deporting to waste and being removed from the materials cycle. This paper provides an overview of the current and future potential of the recycling of the REE, including outlining the significant but currently unrealised potential for increased amounts of REE recycling from end-uses such as permanent magnets, fluorescent lamps, batteries, and catalysts. This future potential will require a significant amount of research but increasing the amount of REE recycling will contribute to the overcoming some of the criticality issues with these elements. These include increased demand, issues over security of supply, and overcoming the balance problem where primary mine-derived sources overproduces lower demand REE without necessarily meeting demands for the higher demand REE.

Copper is vital to modem life and has an often-irreplaceable role in everyday infrastructure and technology. I However, while the planet's Cu endowment is finite, global Cu production continued to increase over the past century-a growth that has been matched by significant growth in estimated Cu mineral reserves and mineral resources. Here, we present a study of 2015 global Cu resources and reserves, updated from a previous paper (Mudd et al., 2013a) that outlined global Cu resources for 2010. The 2015 global Cu resource database consists of 2,301 deposits, of which 1,284 have code-based resources and 1,017 have noncode-based resources, with a further 403 of these projects having code-based reserves and a further four having noncode-based reserves. All mineral deposit types within the database have recorded an increase in Cu resources between 2010 and 2015 (except one), although grades are often similar or slightly lower (by similar to 5%) or are significantly lower, depending on the mineral deposit type considered. Porphyry deposits still dominate global Cu resources and reserves, containing similar to 75% of the contained Cu in our database. Equally unsurprisingly, Chile dominates global Cu resources and reserves, followed by the United States and Peru. The resources within the database contain some 3,034.7 million tonnes k M 0 of Cu, up from the 1,861.3 Mt reported in our 2010 study, plus we report 640.9 M t of Cu contained in reserves (included in resources). This is a significant increase, even if all noncode-based resources were removed (i.e., 2,489.4 Mt Cu in code-based projects). There are three main reasons for this increase. First, this study is more comprehensive, with an increase in deposit numbers (730 vs. 2,301). Second, there have been new discoveries made (or rather resources outlined) between 2010 and 2015. Third, a significant proportion of resources within the 2010 study have grown in size (by a mean value of 13%), often coincident with significan

Methods for quantifying the impacts of water use within life cycle assessment have developed significantly over the past decade. These methods account for local differences in hydrology and water use contexts through the use of regionally specific impact characterisation factors. However, few studies have applied these methods to the mining industry and so there is limited understanding regarding how spatial boundaries may affect assessments of the mining industry's consumptive water use impacts. To address this, we developed production weighted characterisation factors for 25 mineral and metal commodities based upon the spatial distribution of global mine production across watersheds and nations. Our results indicate that impact characterisation using the national average ‘Water Stress Index’ (WSI) would overestimate the water use impacts for 67% of mining operations when compared to assessments using watershed WSI values. Comparatively, national average ‘Available Water Remaining’ (AWaRe) factors would overestimate impacts for 60% of mining operations compared to assessments using watershed factors. In the absence of watershed scale inventory data, assessments may benefit from developing alternative characterisation factors reflecting the spatial distribution of commodity production across watersheds. The results also provide an indication of the commodities being mined in highly water stressed or scarce regions.

Considerations of mineral resource availability and depletion form part of a diverse array of sustainable development-oriented studies, across domains such as resource criticality, life cycle assessment and material flow analysis. Given the multidisciplinary nature of these studies, it is important that a common understanding of the complexity and nuances of mineral supply chains be developed. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of these assessment approaches and expand on several areas that are conceptually difficult to account for in these studies. These include the dynamic nature of relationships between reserves, resources, cut-off grades and ore grades; the ability to account for local economic, social and environmental factors when performing global assessments; and the role that technology improvements play in increasing the availability of economically extractable mineral resources. Advancing knowledge in these areas may further enhance the sophistication and interpretation of studies that assess mineral resource depletion or availability.

The mining of primary metals is critical for a range of modern infrastructure and goods and the continuing growth in global population and consumption means that these primary metals are expected to remain in high demand. However, metallic deposits are, in essence, finite and non-renewable—leading to some concern that we may run out of a given metal in the future. Here, we address this concern by presenting a brief review of the reporting of mineral resource estimates, compiling detailed datasets for national and global trends in mineral resources for numerous metals, and present detailed case studies of major mining projects or fields. The evidence clearly shows strong growth in known mineral resources and cumulative production over time rather than any evidence of gradual resource depletion. In addition, the key factors that already govern existing mining projects and mineral resources are certainly social, environmental and economic in nature rather than geological or related to physical resource depletion. Overall, there is great room for optimism in terms of humankind’s ability to supply future generations with the metals they will require.

Indium has considerable technological and economic value to society due to its use in solar panels and liquid crystal displays for computers, television and mobile devices. Yet, without reliable estimates of known and potentially exploitable indium resources, our ability to sustainably manage the supply of this critical metal is limited. Here, we present the results of a rigorous, deposit-by-deposit assessment of the global resources of indium using a new methodology developed for the assessment of critical metals outlined in Part II of this study (Werner et al., 2017). We establish that at least 356 kt of indium are present within 1512 known mineral deposits of varying deposit types, including VMS, skarn, epithermal and sediment-hosted Pb-Zn deposits. A total of 101 of these deposits have reported indium contents (some 76 kt of contained In) with the remaining 1411 deposits having mineralogical associations that indicate they are indium-bearing, yielding ∼280 kt of contained indium. An additional 219 deposits contain known indium enrichments but have unquantifiable contents, indicating that our global resource figure of 356 kt of contained indium is therefore most certainly a minimum. A limited number of case studies also indicates that a further minimum of ∼24 kt indium is present in mine wastes, a total that is undoubtedly smaller than reality given the minimal reporting of mine waste indium concentrations, and the extensive volume of historical mine wastes. These quantities are sufficient to meet demand for indium this century, assuming current and projected levels of consumption. However, given indium’s classification as a critical metal, its supply still remains a concern, and hence we have also discussed the economic viability and spatial distribution of the indium resources identified during this study to further our understanding of the geopolitical scarcity of this critical metal. Our results suggest that the global indium supply chain is fairly adaptable, primarily as the spatial distribution of indium resources deviates significantly from the current supply chains for this metal. Our study provides a stronger basis for future studies of indium criticality, provenance, supply chain dynamics, and stocks and flows in the fields of economic geology and industrial ecology.

Mining operations are vital to sustaining our modern way of life and are often located in areas that have limited water supplies or are at an increased risk of the effects of climate change. However, few studies have considered the interactions between the mining industry and water resources on a global scale. These interactions are often complex and site specific, and so an understanding of the local water contexts of individual mining projects is required before associated risks can be adequately assessed. Here, we address this important issue by providing the first quantitative assessment of the contextual water risks facing the global base metal mining industry, focusing on the location of known copper, lead, zinc and nickel resources. The relative exposure of copper, lead-zinc and nickel resources to water risks were assessed by considering a variety of spatial water indices, with each providing a different perspective of contextual water risks. Provincial data was considered for water criticality (CRIT), supply risk (SR), vulnerability to supply restrictions (VSR) and the environmental implications (EI) of water use. Additionally, watershed or sub-basin scale data for blue water scarcity (BWS), the water stress index (WSI), the available water remaining (AWaRe), basin internal evaporation recycling (BIER) ratios and the water depletion index (WDI) were also considered, as these have particular relevance for life cycle assessment and water footprint studies. All of the indices indicate that global copper resources are more exposed to water risks than lead-zinc or nickel resources, in part due to the large copper endowment of countries such as Chile and Peru that experience high water criticality, stress and scarcity. Copper resources are located in regions where water consumption is more likely to contribute to long-term decreases in water availability and also where evaporation is less likely to re-precipitate in the same drainage basin to cause surface-runoff or groundwater recharge. The global resource datasets were also assessed against regional Koppen-Geiger climate classifications for the observed period 1951–2000 and changes to 2100 using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s A1FI, A2, B1 and B2 emission scenarios. The results indicate that regions containing copper resources are also more exposed to likely changes in climate than those containing lead-zinc or nickel resources. Overall, regions containing 27–32% (473–574 Mt Cu) of copper, 17–29% (139–241 Mt Pb + Zn) of lead-zinc and 6–13% (19–39 Mt Ni) of nickel resources may have a major climate re-classification as a result of anthropogenic climate change. A further 15–23% (262–412 Mt) of copper, 23–32% (195–270 Mt) of lead-zinc and 29–32% (84–94 Mt) of nickel are exposed to regional precipitation or temperature sub-classification changes. These climate changes are likely to alter the water balance, water quality and infrastructure risks at mining and mineral processing operations. Effective management of long-term changes to mine site water and climate risks requires the further adoption of anticipatory risk management strategies.

Although critical to newly evolving and increasingly essential technologies, antimony (Sb), gallium (Ga), and germanium (Ge) are generally recovered as byproducts or ‘companion metals’ of other metal ores. The stage at which companion metals are extracted depends on metallurgical processes by which the host ore mineral is extracted and processed; many companion metals are recovered late during this processing. Therefore, the current and future supply of companion metals relies not only on production of major commodities, but also on the efficient recovery of these metals during processing that recovers the primary commodity. National geological surveys, particularly the USGS, publish annual estimates of global reserves for a variety of primary metals, but generally not for companion metals. This study provides estimates for the geogenic stocks (in waste rock piles, tailings, smelting, and refining) of Ga, Ge, and Sb as companion metals. These elements are mined in Australia but may be recovered outside of Australia, but their life cycles have not yet been well understood. Based on the methodology adapted, this paper estimates a minimum of 970–1230 kt of Ga, 30–10,000 kt of Ge and 70–1000 kt of Sb in current Australian lead-zinc-silver, gold, copper, iron ore, coal, bauxite, and bauxite residue (red mud) resources. The large range of estimated stocks stems from the variable range of ore grades reported by companies and the considerable uncertainty that exists among the grade estimates presented. However, these estimates are reflective of best practice in mineral resource estimation of Ga, Ge, and Sb, and provide a basis for determining similar recoverable resource estimates of other companion metals, such as indium, rhenium, and selenium, all of which are of increasing importance in modern-day life.

This article reviews the basics of mining and its interaction with water resources. While mining often requires a large amount of water, it can also present various risks to water resources, such as depletion or pollution (especially if acid and metalliferous drainage related to iron sulfide minerals to the surface environment). Modern mining is typically regulated to address these risks, with statutory environmental reporting increasingly being made public to improve transparency and align with the need for industry-wide reporting on sustainable development performance. The article presents a concise overview of mining, its interactions with water resources, key risks to manage, and the principal regulatory and reporting approaches which can be used for sustainable management of both mining and water resources.

The modern world is growing even more dependent on complex technology and infrastructure which need a variety of metals to function. The energy sector is perhaps one of the most crucial areas of this continual evolution of society's needs, with the rapid uptake in renewable energy technologies being a fundamental part of addressing global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change concerns. The principal technologies of renewable energy include solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, and energy storage batteries, all of which are increasingly reliant on a complex array of metals which are rarely mined in their own right but are by-products to primary metals. For example, cadmium and indium are not mined by themselves but are instead extracted during the refining of zinc concentrates, or tellurium is extracted from copper refineries. Furthermore, the production of these specialty metals is often dominated by a select few countries or companies and, combined with their modest value and market size (especially compared to their primary cousins), this means that there are a lack of published studies and data. Although the lack of data or market dominance often raises concerns about possible supply risks, the reality is that there are abundant mineral resources known for all of the primary metals from which specialty metals are extracted. The future supply of metals and minerals already is and will be increasingly constrained by social and environmental issues, especially as the scale of modern mining is now so much greater than decades ago. This chapter reviews all of these key issues surrounding the need for an evergrowing suite of metals for future energy technologies, their current supply and associated key issues. There is indeed a strong case for optimism that the world can continue to work toward even greater uptake of renewable energy and international agreements such as the Paris Agreement on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

The advent of corporate sustainability reporting and water accounting standards has resulted in increased disclosure of water use by mining companies. However, there has been limited compilation and analysis of these disclosures. To address this, we compiled a database of 8314 data points from 359 mining company reports, classified according to mining industry water accounting guidelines. The quality of disclosures is shown to have improved considerably over time. Although, opportunities still exist to improve reporting practices, such as by ensuring that all relevant water flows are reported and to explicitly state non-existent flows (e.g. discharges). Initial data analysis reveals considerable variability in water withdrawals, use efficiency and discharges between mining operations. Further work to improve industry coverage and to analyse the influence of mine specific factors such as ore processing methods and local climate will provide insights into the interactions of mining and water resources at a global scale. Keywords: Mining, Corporate sustainability reporting, Water withdrawals, Water consumption, Water recycling, Water discharge

Estimates of the world's mineral resources of numerous by-product metals remain highly uncertain at best, despite the high criticality of many of these elements to society. This stems from the limited reporting of the concentrations of these elements within mineral deposits by the mining industry, meaning that we require methods to estimate the availability of these resources that overcome this limitation. Here, we present a method for quantifying poorly reported mineral resources of by-product metals that builds upon deposit-by-deposit approaches to global resource estimation, arguably the best-practice approach for well-reported commodities, but also adds the use of proxies for by-product grade estimation. This proxy method allows for deposits with known or inferred by-product metals to also be incorporated within global resource estimates and provides a greater basis for assessing future supply potential. We demonstrate the application and verification of this methodology with indium, a critical metal for which

West Africa, with presently an approximate 10,000-metric ton (t) gold endowment, is one of the world's great gold provinces and the largest Paleoproterozoic gold-producing region. The gold resources are concentrated within the 2250 to 2000 Ma greenstone belts of the Man-Leo shield, forming the southern part of the West Africa craton. Most of the major orebodies are best classified as orogenic gold deposit types, although there are paleoplacer and porphyry-skarn deposits within some of the greenstone belts, and perhaps local intrusionrelated gold systems. The gold-hosting, mainly greenschist metamorphic facies greenstone belts are dominated by tholeiitic volcanic rocks, with clastic and chemical sediments filling adjacent subbasins. The Paleoproterozoic sequences formed in what was likely a rift or series of rifts in a Precambrian cratonic block; it is not clear whether significant Late Archean lithospheric roots occur below these Paleoproterozoic arcs that formed in the resulting ocean subbasins. Although diachronous across West Africa, the Eburnean orogeny is typically indicated to have been initiated at ca. 2130 Ma, with closure of the subbasins, amalgamation of the Paleoproterozoic arcs, and their accretion back to the continental margin of Archean rocks. Compressional tectonics took place for about 25 to 30 m.y., with widespread crustal thickening along orogen-parallel, commonly NE-trending, firstorder thrust fault systems. This was followed by more than 100 m.y. of transcurrent tectonism and associated exhumation; gold ores mainly formed late during the Eburnean deformation.

Lead and zinc keep humanity powered and sheltered, yet a comprehensive understanding of Pb-Zn resources in known mineral deposits has been lacking, leading to uncertainty over when we might expect the supply of these metals to face potential constraints. Addressing this, we compile an extensive database of the world's known Pb-Zn mineral deposits and provide in-depth analyses of their contained resources, ore-grades, economic value, by-products and geological settings. Our data indicate that at least 226.1 Mt Pb and 610.3 Mt Zn are present within 851 individual mineral deposits and mine waste projects from 67 countries (and one in international waters), at an average grade of 0.44 %Pb and 1.20 %Zn. The identified resources are dominantly present within sediment-hosted Pb-Zn deposits (490.6 Mt Pb + Zn + Cu), which contain the equivalent of VMS, Skarn, Porphyry, Epithermal and mixed sediment-hosted deposits combined, and 49% of these resources are reported in Australia, Russia, Peru and Canada alone. The reported Pb-Zn resources appear to be sufficient to meet global demand for both Pb and Zn until 2050, although this estimate is most certainly a minimum, as our case studies indicate a prevailing trend of deposits cumulatively producing well beyond their reported resources over time. Indeed, despite increasing historical production of Pb and Zn, estimated reserves and resources have also increased, and this is expected to continue. We also present an analysis and review of additional aspects affecting the future sustainability of Pb-Zn resources, including an account of the history of Pb-Zn mining, case studies and trends in reporting, classifications of the dominant Pb-Zn mineral deposit types, analysis of reported by-product companion metals, review of tailings resource potential and case studies on the numerous challenges in environmental management historically faced for Pb-Zn mining. These analyses, alongside our comprehensive resource data, indicate that the future supply of Pb and Zn is likely to be governed by prevailing economic, social and environmental factors, much more so than sheer resource constraints.

The rare earth elements (REE) play an indispensable role in modern technology, especially in wind turbines, or as phosphors, catalysts, specialty alloys and others. Despite the benefits of REE, there has been minimal research assessing the environmental impacts of REE mining. Here, we present a “cradle to gate” scale life cycle impact assessment for 26 operating and potential REE mining projects, focusing on the gross energy requirement and the global warming impacts of the primary REE production stage. The results suggest that the declining ore grades of REE significantly increase the environmental impact of REE production. On a unit basis (such as GJ/t-metal or kg CO 2e /t-metal), REE production causes higher environmental impacts than common metals (e.g. Cu, bauxite, and steel), with the refining stage being responsible for the greatest proportion of these impacts. Changing the REE production configuration could lead to diverse environmental footprints associated with each project.

Heavy mineral (HM) sands are usually exploited for titanium and zirconium minerals such as rutile, ilmenite and zircon, but also contain a variety of possible co/by-products, including critical metals such as rare earth elements (REE) in minerals such as monazite and xenotime. The global HM sands industry remains dominated by Australia, which until the mid-1990s included the export of monazite concentrates for REE extraction and provided ∼15–30% of world REE production. The lack of recognition for HM sands as a potential REE resource adds to confusion about potential REE supplies. This study presents a comprehensive assessment of Australian HM sand resources, including an assessment of likely contained monazite, showing that these REE can potentially double the value of a HM sand project. As such, there remains significant opportunities for HM sands projects to increase their economic value by also extracting monazite and xenotime for their REE, with further research needed to assess environmental and rad...

© 2018 by the authors. Lead and zinc are used extensively in the construction and automotive industries, and require sustainable supply. In order to understand the future availability of lead and zinc, we have projected global supplies on a country-by-country basis from a detailed global assessment of mineral resources for 2013. The model GeRS-DeMo was used to create projections of lead and zinc production from ores, as well as recycling for lead. Our modelling suggests that lead and zinc production from known resources is set to peak within 15 years (lead 2025, zinc 2031). For lead, the total supply declines relatively slowly post peak due to recycling. If additional resources are found, these peaks would shift further into the future. These results suggest that lead and zinc consumers will need to plan for the future, potentially by: seeking alternative supplies (e.g., mine tailings, smelter/refinery slags); obtaining additional value from critical metals contained in lead-zinc ore deposits to counter lower grade ores; identifying potential substitutes; redesigning their products; or by contributing to the development of recycling industries.

The interactions of the mining industry with water resources are highly complex and site specific, with potential impacts to both hydrology and water quality occurring at all stages of a mine's life. A range of water management approaches are employed by the industry to mitigate the risks of adverse water impacts occurring. Consequently, the significant variability within the industry poses a range of challenges when attempting to quantify the water footprint of mining operations and mineral commodities. Methods for water footprinting have developed significantly over the past decade and have recently become aligned with life cycle assessment approaches. Despite these advances, relatively few studies have focused upon applying these methods within the mining and mineral processing industry. A range of limitations were identified that hinder the ability to conduct these types of studies. These limitations include: the availability of mine site water use data, inventory data for mining supply chains, the uncertainty of post-closure impacts, and the difficulty of accounting for cumulative impacts and extreme events (e.g. flooding, dam failures, etc.). The spatial resolution and data underpinnings of current water footprint impact characterisation factors also limits the ability to interpret results that may be generated. Overcoming these limitations, through methodological development and data collection efforts, represents a significant opportunity to improve our understanding of the mining industry's water use and impacts. Beyond this, several key opportunities for more widespread use of mine site water footprint assessments were identified, including: to aid the benchmarking of water performance in the mining industry, to improve the quality of cross-sectoral assessments of water use, to assess the indirect impacts of competing technologies, and to provide improved water use disclosures within corporate sustainability reports.

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the pollutant emissions from electrical generation facilities reported to Australia's National Pollutant Inventory (NPI). The data, in terms of pollutant intensity with respect to generation capacity and fuel source, show significant variability. Based on reported data, the dominant pathway and environmental segment for emissions is point-source air emissions. Surprisingly, pollutant emissions from power stations are generally a very small fraction of Australia's facility and diffuse emissions, except for F, HCl, NO(x), PM2.5, SO2 and H2SO4 (where it constitutes between 30 and 90% of emissions). In general, natural gas and diesel facilities have higher organic pollutant intensities, while black and brown coal have higher metal/metalloid pollutant intensities and there is a wide variability for inorganic pollutant intensities. When examining pollutant intensities with respect to capacity, there is very little evidence to show that increased scale leads to more efficient operation or lower pollutant intensity. Another important finding is that the pollutant loads associated with transfers and reuse are substantial, and often represent most of the reported pollutants from a given generation facility. Finally, given the issues identified with the NPI data and its use, some possible improvements include the following: (i) linking site generation data to NPI data (especially generation data, i.e., MWh); (ii) better validation and documentation of emissions factors, especially the methods used to derive and report estimates to the NPI; (iii) using NPI data to undertake comparative life cycle impact assessment studies of different power stations and fuel/energy sources, or even intensive industrial regions (especially from a toxicity perspective) and (iv) linking NPI data in a given region to ongoing environmental monitoring, so that loads can be linked to concentrations for particular pollutants and the relevant guidelines (e.g., air, water, human health). Pollutant inventory systems are clearly valuable tools in understanding pollution burdens and ongoing analysis of the growing body of data should help to further improve environmental and public health outcomes. Overall, this study provides a valuable insight into the current status of pollutant intensities from Australia's electrical generation facilities and should be a valuable benchmark for future studies and international comparisons.

Indium and other geologically scarce metals are routinely integrated into green technologies and modern consumer electronics. The manufacture of solar cells and liquid crystal displays (LCDs) relies strongly on continued indium supply, yet very little research has been conducted to determine what total resources exist to meet future or even present needs. This paper provides an improved understanding of the nature of indium resources and the current and future production and supply of this critical metal through a summary of global trends in indium production and demand, and through a preliminary account of global code-based reporting of indium mineral resources. Authors also present an overview of the potential for indium extraction from mine wastes and recycled electronics using Canadian and Australian case studies. Our preliminary data suggest that considerable resources are likely to exist in a diversity of deposits globally, which have the potential to meet long-term demand for indium. However, it is...

Indium is a specialty metal crucial for modern technology, yet it is potentially critical due to its byproduct status in mining. Measures to reduce its criticality typically focus on improving its recycling efficiency at end-of-life. This study quantifies primary and secondary indium resources ("stocks") for Australia through a dynamic material-flow analysis. It is based on detailed assessments of indium mineral resources hosted in lead-zinc and copper deposits, respective mining activities from 1844 to 2013, and the trade of indium-containing products from 1988 to 2015. The results show that Australia's indium stocks are substantial, estimated at 46.2 kt in mineral resources and an additional 14.7 kt in mine wastes. Australian mineral resources alone could meet global demand (∼0.8 kt/year) for more than five decades. Discarded material from post-consumer products, instead, is negligible (43 t). This suggests that the resilience of Australia's indium supply can best be increased through efficiency gains in mining (such as introducing domestic indium refining capacity) rather than at the end of the product life. These findings likely also apply to other specialty metals, such as gallium or germanium, and other resource-dominated countries. Finally, the results illustrate that national circular economy strategies can differ substantially.

The platinum group elements (PGEs) are used in many technologies and products in modern society, especially auto-catalysts, chemical process catalysts and specialty alloys, yet supply is dominated by South Africa. This leads PGEs to be assessed as 'critical metals', signalling concern about the likelihood and consequences of social, environmental and economic impacts from disruptions to supply. In order to better understand the global PGE situation, this paper presents a comprehensive global assessment of PGE reserves and resources and the key mining trends which can affect supply. The data shows that global PGE resources have increased from 90,733t PGEs in 2010 to 105,682t PGEs in 2015, a 16.4% increase - despite global production of 2243t PGEs over this period. This suggests that the key issues facing the PGE sector are not geological or resource depletion, but clearly social, economic and environmental in nature - as highlighted by recent social issues in South Africa and volatile global economic conditions. Concerns over PGE supply reliability and the implications of any supply disruption will therefore continue to see the PGEs labelled as critical metals - but certainly not due to resource depletion.

A criticality assessment framework is introduced to quantitatively evaluate mineral supply-risk drivers, end-user vulnerabilities, market-dynamic indicators, and their interconnections in a time-dependent manner. Using this framework, we analyzed the criticality of platinum from 1975 to 2015, considering major regional end users (Europe, North America, Japan, and China) and producers (South Africa and Russia). Our analysis demonstrates that: (1) The global supply risk of platinum is strongly influenced by South Africa’s socio-political status and its dominance over global supply and reserves; (2) Production from South Africa is directly affected by the level of social progress in the region, while price is indirectly affected; (3) Platinum prices are more closely associated with production from South Africa than those from North America and Russia; (4) These prices are more connected with consumption in North America than in other regions; (5) Europe is more vulnerable to supply restrictions than North America, Japan, and China in the context of economic importance, consumption and import reliance. Our methodology shows that a detailed, dynamic understanding of constraints, drivers and trends in material supply risks and vulnerabilities can be achieved, although this requires annual reporting of data that can be challenging to compile. As such, there remain challenges in replicating the assessments demonstrated here for other potentially critical metals.

Substance flow analysis (SFA) provides a helpful tool for the study of the industrial metabolism of a certain substance within a regional level. This paper presents SFA of steel in four countries, namely Australia, Brazil, China and India. These countries are traditionally economically mineral dependent and are major contributors in global iron ore production. For example, in 2010 together these countries produced 81% of world iron ore. Based on the analysis it was found that Australian and Brazilian iron ore stocks will deplete rapidly while China and India are accumulating. This paper then presents a discussion on sustainability issues related to substance flows of steel stocks. The study is aimed at providing better understanding of stocks and flows and to inform the policy making for achieving the industrial metabolism and consequently leading to better management of resources and recycling of steel in the countries under study.

The long-term availability of mineral resources is crucial in underpinning human society, technology, and economic activity, and in managing anthropogenic environmental impacts. This is increasingly true for metals that do not generally form the primary product of mines (“host” metals), such as copper or iron, but are recovered as by-products (or sometimes co-products during the processing of primary ores). For these “companion” metals, it is therefore useful to develop methodologies to estimate the recoverable resource, i.e., the amount that could, if desired, be extracted and put into use over the next several decades. We describe here a methodological approach to estimating the recoverable resources of companion metals in metal ores, using preliminary data for some particular host/companion pairs in Australia as examples.

© 2014, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences. A comprehensive country-by-country projection of world iron ore production is presented along with alternative scenarios and a sensitivity analysis. The supply-driven modelling approach follows Mohr (Projection of world fossil fuel production with supply and demand interactions, PhD Thesis, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6782, 2010) using an ultimately recoverable resource of 346 Gt of iron ore. Production is estimated to have a choppy plateau starting in 2017 until 2050 after which production rapidly declines. The undulating plateau is due to Chinese iron ore production peaking earlier followed by Australia and Brazil in turn. Alternative scenarios indicate that the model is sensitive to increases in Australian and Brazilian resources, and that African iron ore production can shift the peak date only if the African Ultimately Recoverable Resources (URR) is 5 times larger than the estimate used. Changes to the demand for iron ore driven by substitution or recycling are not modelled. The relatively near-term peak in iron ore supply is likely to create a global challenge to manufacturing and construction and ultimately the world economy.

Copper plays a crucial role in modern society across the world, contributing to infrastructure, technology, and lifestyles. Although mineral resources are commonly considered to be “finite,” global Cu production has grown steadily throughout the 20th century, and has been matched by substantial growth in estimated Cu reserves and resources. While there is growing concern about “peak oil,” there is very little research about “peak minerals.” In this paper, we present a detailed compilation and assessment of globally reported Cu resources by project and standard deposit types for the year 2010. The minimum amount of Cu reported globally as mineral resources is 1,780.9 Mt Cu, split over a total of 730 projects, with a further 80.4 Mt Cu in China. In addition, our compiled data indicate that global Cu resources continue to increase, despite a coincident increase in Cu production over time, along with declining cutoff and ore grades, increasing awareness of environmental issues, and other related aspects. Our data compilation indicates that the vast majority of global copper resources are hosted by Cu porphyry deposits, especially in Chile, with Cu porphyry deposits containing some 10 times more Cu than any other mineral deposit type. Overall, there are abundant Cu resources already identified that can meet growing global demands for some decades to come; the primary factors that govern whether a given project is developed will be social, economic, and environmental in nature.

The concept of “peak oil” has been explored and debated extensively within the literature. However there has been comparatively little research examining the concept of “peak minerals”, particularly in-depth analyses for individual metals. This paper presents scenarios for mined copper production based upon a detailed assessment of global copper resources and historic mine production. Scenarios for production from major copper deposit types and from individual countries or regions were developed using the Geologic Resources Supply-Demand Model (GeRS-DeMo). These scenarios were extended using cumulative grade-tonnage data, derived from our resource database, to produce estimates of potential rates of copper ore grade decline. The scenarios indicate that there are sufficient identified copper resources to grow mined copper production for at least the next twenty years. The future rate of ore grade decline may be less than has historically been the case, as mined grades are approaching the average resource grade and there is still significant copper endowment in high grade ore bodies. Despite increasing demand for copper as the developing world experiences economic growth, the economic and environmental impacts associated with increased production rates and declining ore grades (particularly those relating to energy consumption, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions) will present barriers to the continued expansion of the industry. For these reasons peak mined copper production may well be realised during this century.

The long-term availability of mineral resources is crucial in underpinning human society, technology and economic activity, and managing anthropogenic environmental impacts. This availability is increasingly true for metals that do not generally form the primary product of mines, such as copper or iron, but instead are recovered as by-products (or sometimes co-products) during the processing of primary ores—also known as ‘companion metals’ (e.g., indium, cobalt, molybdenum, rhenium, selenium). These metals, however, can be of significant economic and technological importance, both to a mine's economics and in downstream applications. It is therefore useful to develop methodologies to estimate the “recoverable resource” for such companion metals, i.e., the amount that could, if desired, be extracted and put into use over the next several decades. Monitoring the supply and demand of these resources is important to enable the identification of any changes that may have significant repercussions for the global economy, technology needs, and the environment. Here, we derive an estimate of the recoverable resource for cobalt (Co), a metal used with increasing frequency and in larger amounts in modern technology that is mainly recovered as a by-product of copper and nickel ore processing and production; Co-only mines are few in number and typically small in size. Our methodology combines the reported size of ore bodies that host Co with measured or estimated Co concentrations in the ores within these bodies. The dominantly by-product nature of Co means that uncertainties exist for some of the Co grades as well as recovery rates; given this, we also split our total recoverable Co resource, using a resource estimate data quality classification, into high, medium and low quality data, depending on factors such as whether statutory resource reporting codes were used during resource reporting. This methodology indicates that a minimum of 26.8 Mt Co is present in current global Co resources, with 15.2, 5.6 and 6.0 Mt Co in high, medium and low quality resources, respectively. Applying typical recovery rates for different ore types indicates that ~ 15.9 Mt of this Co is recoverable, with ~ 10.7, ~ 2.6 and ~ 2.6 Mt Co recoverable in high, medium and low quality resources, respectively. This approach provides a basis for determining similar recoverable resource estimates of other companion metals, such as indium, rhenium, selenium, etc., all of which are of increasing importance in modern day life.

A single mining camp or ore deposit can contain multiple mineral deposit types but may have mineral reserves or resources classified by what a mining or mineral exploration company considers to be the dominant mineralization type in the area. In this paper, we summarize recent work on the challenges of reporting mineral deposits by geologic processes rather than by grades, tonnages, and mineral processing approaches. For example, the Ertsberg-Grasberg district of Indonesia contains several large skarn Cu-Au-Ag deposits, with the discovery outcrop as well as early production entirely in skarn. All early publications and resource descriptions refer to it as the Ertsberg district. Subsequent discovery of the giant Grasberg porphyry Cu-Au-Ag deposit led to the entire district being renamed Grasberg and classified as a porphyry deposit, despite the skarn-focused discovery and early production history of the deposit, as well as the presence of several large skarn deposits within the district. The Ok Tedi Cu-Au-Ag deposit of western Papua New Guinea also is generally thought of as a major porphyry Cu deposit, yet hosts both porphyry and skarn mineralization. Current reserve estimates indicate that the majority of the contained metal within the deposit is hosted by skarns rather than porphyry bodies. Thus, following the Grasberg example in terms of contained metal, Ok Tedi could be classified as a skarn rather than a porphyry deposit. In addition, comparatively minor mineral deposits can prove useful during exploration; this is exemplified by the large Au-Cu-Ag porphyry deposits at Cadia in Australia that were discovered by exploring modest skarn deposits using the Ertsberg-Grasberg skarn-porphyry model. Here, we extend a recent global compilation of economic Cu mineral resources by analyzing cumulative production and reserve-resource data for Ertsberg-Grasberg, Ok Tedi, and Cadia, and provide a brief review of a number of other Cu projects that contain multiple mineralization types. Overall, in order to help inform exploration strategies as well as facilitate the development of more comprehensive and accurate mineral deposit models, there is clearly positive value for the mineral exploration and mining industry in reporting ore reserves and mineral resources by mineralization type.

Rare earth elements (REEs) have a crucial role in modern environmental and medical technologies, leading to a continuously growing demand for these elements. The relatively modest scale of the global REE mining sector means that the REE mineral deposit type knowledge base is small compared to more well-known styles of mineralisation. In this paper, we present a new classification scheme for differing REE mineral deposit types, outline the geological processes that cause REE enrichments, define characteristic grades and tonnages, and provide information on the environmental impact associated with REE mining, extraction and processing. Although current global REE supply is dominated by production from carbonatites, REEs are in fact found in a wide variety of deposits, including magmatic alkaline complex- and rhyolite-hosted REE mineralisation, REE-enriched iron oxide-copper–gold deposits, and REEs within heavy mineral sands, amongst others. Critically, REE mineralogy is linked to environmental risks...

Wind energy has become one of the most significant sectors in global renewable energy market. This chapter analyses the global rare earth elements (REE) demands and associated environmental implications driven from the rapid growing global wind energy demands. The NdFeB permanent magnet demand from wind turbines is a valuable case study to underpin and evaluate the environmental benefits of REE consumption and wind energy growth, as both of them are key areas of expected global clean energy supply and critical metal demands.

The energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water intensity, or environmental footprints, of global primary copper production have been estimated. The primary data have been collected from the sustainability reports published by copper producing mines, operations and companies. The mines analysed in this paper are from Australia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Laos, Papua New Guniea, South Africa, Turkey, Finland, the USA and Canada. The typical range of energy intensity was found to be 10–70 GJ/t Cu, with an average of 22.2 GJ/t Cu. The range of GHG emissions was 1–9 t CO2-e/t Cu, with an average of 2.6 t CO2-e/t Cu. The large variation exists largely due to the form of copper produced, ore grade, sources of fuel and electrical energy, and to a lesser extent the reporting methods and procedures used by the companies. The water footprint averages 70.4 kL/t Cu but can range from several kilolitres to up to 350 kL/t Cu. Variation in water intensity is generally due to inconsistencies in reporting method, the geographical location of the mining operations, limited economies of scale of production site, and the climate type (i.e. arid regions in Australia and Chile or temperate to sub-arctic climates in Canada or Finland). It is recommended that company sustainability reports should clearly specify fuel use by type for vehicles, heat or electrical energy, sources of electricity and their mixes (including GHG emissions factors), and the boundaries of the operation for meaningful use in life cycle assessment (LCA). Sustainability reports should be published at regular intervals so that improvements towards more sustainable performance can be measured, and an LCA of mining activities can be developed for primary copper production more readily. The paper provides a valuable insight into the strong value of sustainability reporting for an industrial sector such as copper mining and how such data can be linked to LCA studies.

Mining industry requires high amounts of energy to extract and process resources, including a variety of concentration and refining processes. Using energy consumption information, different sustainability issues can be addressed, such as the relationship with ore grade over the years, energy variations in electricity or fossil fuel use. A rigorous analysis and understanding of the energy intensity use in mining is the first step towards a more sustainable mining industry and, globally, better resource management. Numerous studies have focused on the energy consumption of mining projects, with analysis carried out primarily in one single country or one single region. This paper quantifies, on a global level, the relationship between ore grade and energy intensity. With the case of copper, the study has shown that the average copper ore grade is decreasing over time, while the energy consumption and the total material production in the mine increases. Analyzing only copper mines, the average ore grade has decreased approximately by 25% in just ten years. In that same period, the total energy consumption has increased at a higher rate than production (46% energy increase over 30% production increase).

This paper presents a time-series Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to examine the historical environmental impacts associated with copper mining and smelting in Australia from 1940 to 2008. It uses cradle-to-gate LCA models to estimate impacts from the five largest Australian copper mines, incorporating changes in ore grade and differences in technologies and regional energy sources. Using copper as an example of the different life-cycle impacts of metals, this study demonstrates the influence of both temporal and spatial factors. For mine/smelters, results show that the carbon footprint of copper produced at all sites over the time period investigated ranges from 2.5 to 8.5 kg CO 2 -eq./kg Cu and the difference between different locations in any given year can be up to 6 kg CO 2 -eq./kg Cu. The estimated impact potentials derived from the LCA models for Australia's largest mine/smelter at Olympic Dam are then compared to impacts reported by mine operators for global warming potential and acidification. The results of the LCA analysis indicate the importance of considering time-varying parameters and highlight an opportunity to use LCA models more broadly for assessing future technology and energy options in the mineral sector.

Today's global society is economically, socially and culturally dependent on minerals and metals. While metals are recyclable, terrestrial mineral deposits are by definition ‘non-renewable’ over human timescales and their stocks are thus finite. This raises the spectre of ‘peak minerals’ – the time at which production from terrestrial ores can no longer rise to meet demand and where a maximum (peak) production occurs. Peak minerals prompts a focus on the way minerals can be sustainably used in the future to ensure the services they provide to global society can be maintained. As peak minerals approaches (and is passed in some cases), understanding and monitoring the dynamics of primary mineral production, recycling and dematerialisation, in the context of national and global discussions about mineral resources demand and the money earned from their sale, will become essential for informing and establishing mechanisms for sustainable mineral governance and use efficiency into the future. Taking a cross-scale approach, this paper explores the economic and productivity impacts of peak minerals, and how changes in the mineral production profile are influenced not only by technological and scarcity factors, but also by environmental and social constraints. Specifically we examine the impacts of peak minerals in Australia, a major global minerals supplier, and the consequences for the Asia-Pacific region, a major destination for Australia's minerals. This research has profound implications for local and regional/global sustainability of mineral and metal use. The focus on services is useful for encouraging discussion of transitions in how such services can be provided in a future more sustainable economy, when mineral availability is constrained. The research also begins to address the question of how we approach the development of strategies to maximise returns from mineral wealth over generations.

Platinum group elements (PGEs) are increasingly used in a variety of environmentally-related technologies, such as chemical process catalysts, catalytic converters for vehicle exhaust control, hydrogen fuel cells, electronic components, and a variety of specialty medical uses, amongst others — almost all of which have strong expected growth to meet environmental and technological challenges this century. Economic geologists have been arguing on the case of abundant geologic resources of PGEs for some time while others still raise concerns about long-term supply — yet there remains no detailed analysis of formally reported mineral resources and key trends in the PGEs sector. This paper presents such a detailed review of the PGEs sector, including detailed mine production statistics and mineral resources by principal ore types, providing an authoritative case study on the resource sustainability for a group of elements which are uniquely concentrated in a select few regions of the earth. The methodology, compiled data sets and trends provide strong assurance on the contribution that PGEs can make to the key sustainability and technology challenges of the 21st century such as energy and pollution control.

Stormwater infiltration systems are a popular method for urban stormwater control. They are often designed using an assumption of one-dimensional saturated outflow, although this is not very accurate for many typical designs where two-dimensional (2D) flows into unsaturated soils occur. Available 2D variably saturated flow models are not commonly used for design because of their complexity and difficulties with the required boundary conditions. A purpose-built stormwater infiltration system model was thus developed for the simulation of 2D flow from a porous storage. The model combines a soil moisture-based model for unsaturated soils with a ponded storage model and uses a wetting front-tracking approach for saturated flows. The model represents the main physical processes while minimizing input data requirements. The model was calibrated and validated using data from laboratory 2D stormwater infiltration trench experiments. Calibrations were undertaken using five different combinations of calibration data to examine calibration data requirements. It was found that storage water levels could be satisfactorily predicted using parameters calibrated with either data from laboratory soils tests or observed water level data, whereas the prediction of soil moistures was improved through the addition of observed soil moisture data to the calibration data set.

A key environmental concern is pollution loads released from human activity, since excessive pollutant loads can cause significant public health and/or environmental impacts. A principal objective of environmental regulation is therefore to minimise pollutant releases. The most common approach to assessing and monitoring pollutant loads is through pollutant release databases, with such systems now operating throughout Europe, North America and Australia. This paper has compiled and analysed an extensive data set on Australian coal mining and associated pollutant emissions reported through the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI). In Australia, the coal industry has been growing rapidly over recent decades, and this is causing significant community concerns over cumulative environmental impacts. The pollutant loads and intensities from coal mining are analysed in conjunction with production data. The trends identified in this paper provide an important basis to understand the value of pollutant release and transfer registers, such as the NPI, and demonstrate the critical need to integrate such data with ongoing trends in industry and environmental management initiatives.

The volume of mine waste rock generated, including tailings from mineral processing activities, is one of the main pollution concerns in the mining industry in general. In the State of Goa (India), the waste rock management is becoming increasingly difficult due to acute space shortage consequent to expanding mining activities. These waste rocks contain acid producing sulphides and high concentrations of heavy metals. In the Goa region, the agricultural fields, nallahs, river beds and creeks are prone to heavy siltation/sediment deposition, which results from soil erosion due to the heavy rainfall this region receives. In view of this erosion and consequent degradation of surrounding environment, this article seeks to estimate the amounts of soil erosion from mine waste rock dumps using the RUSLE model and evaluates the impacts of erosion on the local environment. Based on data interpretation and RUSLE analysis, the trends in soil loss were established under various geo-environmental conditions, such as d...

© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This paper critically assesses if accessible lithium resources are sufficient for expanded demand due to lithium battery electric vehicles. The ultimately recoverable resources (URR) of lithium globally were estimated at between 19.3 (Case 1) and 55.0 (Case 3) Mt Li; Best Estimate (BE) was 23.6 Mt Li. The Mohr 2010 model was modified to project lithium supply. The Case 1 URR scenario indicates sufficient lithium for a 77% maximum penetration of lithium battery electric vehicles in 2080 whereas supply is adequate to beyond 2200 in the Case 3 URR scenario. Global lithium demand approached a maximum of 857 kt Li/y, with a 100% penetration of lithium vehicles, 3.5 people per car and 10 billion population.