Mining is big business, but also one of the world’s biggest polluters. A 2019 report estimated that the world’s 3,500 large-scale mining operations produce over 100 billion tonnes of solid waste per year.
The ratio of useful materials to waste minerals is staggering; waste mass can be several times that of base metals, and can be millions of times that of rare elements such as gold. This waste is of particular concern due to its often toxic content, with poisonous materials such as mercury a frequent by-product of mining operations. Recent accidents, such as the collapse of a tailings dam at Vale’s Brazilian operations near the town of Brumadinho, have also shone a spotlight on existing waste storage and treatment facilities, with growing concern that simply collecting vast reserves of solid and liquid waste is both unprofitable and highly dangerous.
A promising counter to this growing problem is that of waste recovery. Rather than cutting down on waste itself, companies are investing in new industrial processes to extract and re-use some of the useful materials that are often dumped among tonnes of less useful mining waste. With platinum group metals (PGMs), base metals, and even rare commodities such as gold among these unintended by-products of mining, there are a number of initiatives across the mining industry to improve the reclamation of resources, and push the sector towards a truly circular economy.
Canada-based Mineworx has been involved in the mining industry for some time, having entered into the sector in 1975 with the acquisition of the Cehegín iron ore project in Spain, which produced four million tonnes of ore in its first fourteen years of operation. Since then, the company has moved into the development of more advanced technologies, aiming to increase the environmental viability of both its operations in particular and mining in general. The business reached a major milestone in April when it announced an agreement with Tennessee’s Davis Recycling Inc. to construct a pilot plant; the operation will see platinum group metals (PGMs) recycled from used catalytic converters.
Source: Mining Technology
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