Byproduct Metal Availability Constrained by Dynamics of Carrier Metal Cycle: The Gallium–Aluminum Example

Løvik, Amund N.; Restrepo, Eliette; Müller, Daniel B.

doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b02396

Cited by 27 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…demand for metals and industrial minerals, as is clearly documented in numerous recent projections (e.g. Buchert et al, 2009;Mudd et al, 2013;de Boer and Lammertsma, 2013;Moss et al, 2013;Fizaine, 2013;Kavlak et al, 2015;Wellmer and Hagelüken, 2015;Nassar et al, 2015;Frenzel et al, 2015Frenzel et al, , 2016Lovik et al, 2016). Will the mining industry be able to adjust its modus operandi to this rapid rate of change?…”

Section: Figura 1 (A) La Masa Total Elemental Estima (Mi) Como Una Fmentioning

confidence: 96%

Challenges and opportunities for a successful mining industry in the future.

Mateus¹,

Martins²

2019

BGM

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Modern models of sustainable economic growth are metal-intensive and will not be successful in the future unless a continuous supply of mineral-derived products is ensured. Despite this being logical, there is still a significant reluctance regarding mineral exploration and mining activities, often reflected in: (i) unfavourable public opinions; and (ii) absence of political measures or continuity of agendas that actually appreciate the way minerals are produced and the players directly or indirectly involved in this production. To succeed, the mining industry will have to (re)define its strategy and find innovative approaches to old problems and clearly demonstrate that mineral products can be efficiently delivered to support global development and assist suitable paths to welfare and quality of life, thus also providing real value to all concerned. In this study we give a concise review of the main challenges posed to the mining industry, and also indicate the most relevant opportunities and advance some proposals to constructively face the identified weaknesses and threats. The fundamental outcome is that the long-term balance between supply and demand of mineral products requires concerted actions on different fronts aiming: (i) the safeguarding of known resources; (ii) high-quality (scientifically and technologically driven) exploration surveys; (iii) improvements in mining and mineral transformation/ beneficiation; (iv) advances in consistent combinations of primary and secondary sources of raw materials, along with higher concerns on their judicious use; (v) effective and stable mining policies; and (vi) new insights on the role played by the mining industry through fruitful dialogues with society in general.

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Section: Figura 1 (A) La Masa Total Elemental Estima (Mi) Como Una Fmentioning

confidence: 96%

Challenges and opportunities for a successful mining industry in the future.

Mateus¹,

Martins²

2019

BGM

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“…The critical metals for photovoltaics are usually byproducts of other extracted industrial materials [65], for instance, indium, which is a byproduct of zinc mining [26]. The same holds true for tellurium [66] or gallium [67]. Industrial CRM policy strategies therefore aim at substitution and avoidance.…”

Section: Primary Crm Extraction For Smart City Energy Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Smart Is Not Smart Enough!” Anticipating Critical Raw Material Use in Smart City Concepts: The Example of Smart Grids

David

Koch

2019

Sustainability

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Globally emerging smart city concepts aim to make resource production and allocation in urban areas more efficient, and thus more sustainable through new sociotechnical innovations such as smart grids, smart meters, or solar panels. While recent critiques of smart cities have focused on data security, surveillance, or the influence of corporations on urban development, especially with regard to intelligent communication technologies (ICT), issues related to the material basis of smart city technologies and the interlinked resource problems have largely been ignored in the scholarly literature and in urban planning. Such problems pertain to the provision and recovery of critical raw materials (CRM) from anthropogenic sources like scrap metal repositories, which have been intensely studied during the last few years. To address this gap in the urban planning literature, we link urban planning literatures on smart cities with literatures on CRM mining and recovery from scrap metals. We find that underestimating problems related to resource provision and recovery might lead to management and governance challenges in emerging smart cities, which also entail ethical issues. To illustrate these problems, we refer to the smart city energy domain and explore the smart city-CRM-energy nexus from the perspectives of the respective literatures. We show that CRMs are an important foundation for smart city energy applications such as energy production, energy distribution, and energy allocation. Given current trends in smart city emergence, smart city concepts may potentially foster primary extraction of CRMs, which is linked to considerable environmental and health issues. While the problems associated with primary mining have been well-explored in the literature, we also seek to shed light on the potential substitution and recovery of CRMs from anthropogenic raw material deposits as represented by installed digital smart city infrastructures. Our central finding is that the current smart city literature and contemporary urban planning do not address these issues. This leads to the paradox that smart city concepts are supporting the CRM dependencies that they should actually be seeking to overcome. Discussion on this emerging issue between academics and practitioners has nevertheless not taken place. We address these issues and make recommendations.

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“…Gallium in low thermal native zinc sulfides can be present with mass fractions up to 0.002 % (Schreiter, 1960). Up to 3 % of the globally available gallium originates from this source (Løvik et al, 2016). Moreover, minor concentrations of gallium can be measured in some coal deposits.…”

Section: Primary Production Of Galliummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, minor concentrations of gallium can be measured in some coal deposits. But, processes for an extraction from coal or fly ashes with reasonable expenses are not developed yet (Løvik et al, 2016;Wittmer et al, 2011).…”

Section: Primary Production Of Galliummentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges for critical raw material recovery from WEEE – The case study of gallium

2017

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Gallium and gallium compounds are more frequently used in future oriented technologies such as photovoltaics, light diodes and semiconductor technology. In the long term the supply risk is estimated to be critical. Germany is one of the major primary gallium producer, recycler of gallium from new scrap and GaAs wafer producer. Therefore, new concepts for a resource saving handling of gallium and appropriate recycling strategies have to be designed. This study focus on options for a possible recycling of gallium from waste electric and electronic equipment. To identify first starting points, a substance flow analysis was carried out for gallium applied in integrated circuits applied on printed circuit boards and for LEDs used for background lighting in Germany in 2012. Moreover, integrated circuits (radio amplifier chips) were investigated in detail to deduce first approaches for a recycling of such components. An analysis of recycling barriers was carried out in order to investigate general opportunities and risks for the recycling of gallium from chips and LEDs. Results show, that significant gallium losses arose in primary production and in waste management. 93±11%, equivalent to 43,000±4700kg of the total gallium potential was lost over the whole primary production process until applied in electronic goods. The largest share of 14,000±2300kggallium was lost in the production process of primary raw materials. The subsequent refining process was related to additional 6900±3700kg and the chip and wafer production to 21,700±3200kg lost gallium. Results for the waste management revealed only low collection rates for related end-of-life devices. Not collected devices held 300 ± 200 kg gallium. Due to the fact, that current waste management processes do not recover gallium, further 80 ± 10 kg gallium were lost. A thermal pre-treatment of the chips, followed by a manual separation allowed an isolation of gallium rich fractions, with gallium mass fractions up to 35%. Here, gallium loads per chip were between 0.9 and 1.3mg. Copper, gold and arsenic were determined as well. Further treatment options for this gallium rich fraction were assessed. The conventional pyrometallurgical copper route might be feasible. A recovery of gold and gallium in combination with copper is possible due to a compatibility with this base-metal. But, a selective separation prior to this process is necessary. Diluted with other materials, the gallium content would be too low. The recycling of gallium from chips applied on printed circuit boards and LEDs used for background lighting is technically complex. Recycling barriers exist over the whole recycling chain. A forthcoming commercial implementation is not expected in nearer future. This applies in particular for chips carrying gallium.

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Byproduct Metal Availability Constrained by Dynamics of Carrier Metal Cycle: The Gallium–Aluminum Example

Cited by 27 publications

References 41 publications

Challenges and opportunities for a successful mining industry in the future.

Challenges and opportunities for a successful mining industry in the future.

“Smart Is Not Smart Enough!” Anticipating Critical Raw Material Use in Smart City Concepts: The Example of Smart Grids

Challenges for critical raw material recovery from WEEE – The case study of gallium

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