Recovery of Metals from Mineral Wastes
A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701). This special issue belongs to the section "Extractive Metallurgy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: recovery of metals; synthesis of metals and alloys; thermodynamics and kinetics; chlorination, dissociation and reduction by hydrogen of nanostructured materials
Interests: thermodynamic modelling; kinetic modelling; heterogeneous catalysis; pyrometallurgy; metals adsorption
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The energy transition is a topic that will contribute considerably to the future survival of mankind. Many fascinating technological applications— electric transport and storage, green energy generation, metals or metal-derivative compounds, such as oxides—must be developed in order to guarantee success. However, due to the extensive mineral-related industrial activities in the past decades, a significant amount of mineral waste has been produced, and the supply of many metals, which are vital for accomplishing the expected energy transition, has shrunk considerably. This tendency is motivating the search for new extraction routes that enable metal production from mineral waste, imposing many technological challenges, particularly in relation to the significant impurities found in these resources. In this context, studies related to both thermodynamic or kinetic modelling, as well as transport phenomena simulations applied to such complex reaction systems, can act as a solid foundation for the development of efficient and alternative extraction routes.
This Special Issue invites submissions that include original scientific research associated with either theoretical or experimental studies related to new processes for extracting critical metals from any kind of mineral waste. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following research areas:
- Experimental or theoretical studies of equilibrium conditions to promote the selective recovery of critical metals;
- Kinetic modelling of heterogeneous reactions involved;
- Simulation and optimization of operational conditions based on kinetic modelling data;
- Transport phenomena simulations to understand the behaviour of proposed equipment for metal extraction under different process scales.
Prof. Dr. Eduardo de Albuquerque Brocchi
Dr. Rogério C.S. Navarro
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- hydrometallurgy
- pyrometallurgy
- mineral waste
- thermodynamic modelling
- kinetic modelling
- transport phenomena
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