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National mineral waste databases as an information source for assessing material recovery potential from mine waste, tailings and metallurgical waste

�ibret, Gorazd; Lemiere, Bruno; Mendez, Ana-Maria; Cormio, Carlo; Sinnett, Danielle; Cleall, Peter; Szab�, Katalin; Carvalho, M. Teresa

Authors

Gorazd �ibret

Bruno Lemiere

Ana-Maria Mendez

Carlo Cormio

Peter Cleall

Katalin Szab�

M. Teresa Carvalho



Abstract

We examined the national mine waste registries from seven European countries, created to fulfil the requirements of the “Mine Waste Directive” (2006/21/EC), for their potential use as an initial source of information for the valorisation of specific mine waste deposits for their resource recovery. A set of parameters for mine waste valorisation was defined and divided into three groups: the “basic”, the “metal-centric” and the “material-centric” group. The “basic” group of 19 parameters considers properties of the mine waste deposit, including the location, history, homogeneity and quantity, among others, while the other two groups relate to the two desired material recovery types. The “metal-centric” group of parameters contains the six parameters needed to preliminarily assess the potential to valorise mine waste for metal extraction, while the “material-centric” group contains the nine parameters needed to consider the use of mine waste for the production of different construction materials. National mine waste registries from Slovenia, France, Spain, Italy, UK, Hungary and Portugal were reviewed to determine whether they contain information about each of the parameters. In line with the objectives of the Mine Waste Directive, the national mine waste registries were developed to reduce or prevent environmental damage, and not to enable resource recovery from mine waste. The registries contain most of the information for the parameters in the “basic” group, less information for the parameters in the “metal-centric” group and almost no information to define the parameters in the “material-centric” group. The conclusion is that national mine waste registries could serve only as an initial source of information, and more detailed information must be obtained from other sources. This misses an opportunity to see these sites as a resource, and not only as a potential source of pollution, given the urgent need to find alternative stocks of metals within the EU (European Union).

Citation

Žibret, G., Lemiere, B., Mendez, A., Cormio, C., Sinnett, D., Cleall, P., …Carvalho, M. T. (2020). National mineral waste databases as an information source for assessing material recovery potential from mine waste, tailings and metallurgical waste. Minerals, 10(5), Article 446. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10050446

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 14, 2020
Online Publication Date May 16, 2020
Publication Date May 16, 2020
Deposit Date May 26, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Minerals
Electronic ISSN 2075-163X
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 5
Article Number 446
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/min10050446
Keywords tailings; mining; resource recovery; construction materials; metals; raw materials
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5997736

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