Metallurgy of Key Minerals - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 244

8.14 Summary of the chapter
Throughout this chapter, the different metallurgical production chains of key mi-
nerals produced in the world have been described. Table 8.3 shows a summary of
the energy requirements and GHG emissions for each of the described metals as
well as for other important industrial minerals. The information has been obtained
among others from the Ullmann's Encyclopedia (Ullmann and Gerhartz, 2002), the
BREFs (Best available techniques Reference Documents) (IPPC, 2009, 2001, 2012)
or the Ecoinvent database (Classen et al., 2007). It should be pointed out that
the lack of precise and reliable data found in the literature is surprising. Some of
the most “modern” information sources date back to the seventies 33 and hence the
processes from which the information was obtained might no longer be accurate or
even relevant. Furthermore, as was shown in Chap. 7, as the ore grade decreases,
energy consumption increases exponentially.
Hence, mining energy requirements (even with significant e ciency increases)
might be higher than those provided in Table 8.3. Finally, as metallurgical pro-
cesses are subject to many different factors, such as ore grade, mining conditions,
economic, environmental and technological constraints, etc, there is a wide range
of energy values for each commodity with exact details depending on where on the
globe the different processes take place. To overcome information gaps, life cycle
assessments should be systematically applied to evaluate and benchmark processes.
This demands real data be taken directly from the field, rather than that obtained
from computer databases and crude estimates. Studies like those of Norgate and
Rankin (2002) where GHG are related to the ore grade for copper are urgently
required. Consequently Table 8.3 should be taken with caution, even though it
provides good orders of magnitude. In any case, and despite the knowledge gaps, it
has become steadily clearer as the chapter progressed that the metallurgical indus-
try is one of the most energy intensive of all with large detrimental effects on the
environment.
This chapter closes the description of the geological, geochemical and techno-
logical aspects of the mineral endowment on Earth. The next part of the topic is
aimed at providing the thermodynamic vision of mineral resource depletion.
33 For instance, the data obtained by Botero (2000) are estimates based on the studies of Kellogg
(1977); Chapman and Roberts (1983); Yoshiki-Gravelsins et al. (1993); Hancock (1984).