Geometallurgical Approaches to Tailings Management and Resource Recovery
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 1692
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mine waste characterisation; geometallurgy; geochemistry and mineralogy; critical minerals; resource estimation; geostatistics; acid mine drainage
Interests: geometallurgical and geoenvironmental characterisation; tailings characterisation and reprocessing; acid mine drainage; mine waste characterisation and repurposing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: geometallurgy; process optimisation; low-grade ore and mine waste characterisation; mineral processing; gold hydrometallurgy; and environmental geochemistry
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The generation of large volumes of mine waste (such as tailings, waste rock, slag, etc.) from the mining and processing of metalliferous ores poses significant challenges for their management and storage. One solution may be the valorization of mine waste through metal recovery and/or use as industrial raw materials. Mine waste and, in particular, tailings may contain significant amounts of valuable and critical minerals that were not previously recovered (e.g., cobalt, indium, rare earth elements). Sulphidic mine waste also presents a risk of acid production and metalliferous drainage. Through the use of geometallurgical approaches, the environmental risks of mine waste can be better managed, and their resource potential can be unlocked by better integrating geochemical and mineralogical knowledge with mining, processing, and environmental factors.
This Special Issue invites submissions relating to aspects of the geometallurgy of tailings deposits and other mine waste throughout all stages of the mining value chain, with a focus on resource recovery and environmental factors. Topics may include (1) sampling of tailings and mine waste deposits; (2) the geometallurgical characterization and process mineralogy of tailings and mine waste; (3) reprocessing of mine waste for metal and critical mineral recovery; (4) the desulphurization and geoenvironmental characterization of tailings and mine waste; (5) the application of geophysical methods to tailings deposits; (6) geometallurgical modelling of tailings and mine waste deposits to assess resource potential; (7) case studies of geometallurgical characterization of tailings or other mine waste.
Dr. Rosie Blannin
Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox
Dr. Steve Jason Chingwaru
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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. Minerals 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 2400 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
- mine waste
- tailings
- geometallurgy
- secondary prospectivity
- critical minerals
- process mineralogy
- minerals processing
- geoenvironmental characterization
- acid and metalliferous drainage
- desulphurization
- geophysics
- sampling
- case studies
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