Towards Sustainable Mining and Mineral Processing of Metals: Assessment to Implementation

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to launch a new Special Issue focusing on recent and emerging developments that will ensure a sustainable minerals industry to facilitate the energy transition, as well as the concurrent achievement of net zero emissions mining.

The minerals sector faces an exciting yet extremely challenging future. There is a dual requirement to discover and develop significant new sources of raw materials to process into metals, including critical minerals for the energy transition, but to do so in a manner that is sustainable, incurring minimal environmental externalities.

Mineral production remains a cornerstone of present and future societal needs, underpinning economic growth and thus affecting citizens’ quality of life.

Solutions for a cleaner future for the minerals industry are diverse, varying between commodities and geographies.

New methods of mining are needed where waste streams are minimized, as well as new processing technologies, both requiring cleaner energy sources, energy-efficient equipment, and fit-for-purpose chemical reagents and other consumables.

Sustainability challenges exist along the entire value chain from discovery through to economic assessment, financing, capital development, clean production, and in supply chain management.

Ethical, environmental, social, and governance expectations are heightened, as is the expectation that new production can be delivered safely.

This Special Issue will contain new research in the broad area of sustainable mining and will form a unique and valuable reference source for researchers and industry practitioners.

A list of potential topics of interest is reported below:

• New frontiers in innovative mineral exploration and discovery.
• Non-invasive mining, including in situ leaching of metals.
• Productivity technologies in open pit and underground mining.
• Mineral resources life cycle impact assessment.
• Towards net zero emissions mining.
• Energy efficiency in mining and processing.
• New methods and emerging technologies for mineral processing and recovery.
• Efficient recovery of by-product metals from smelting and refining.
• Novel uses for mining sector waste streams.
• Mining closure strategies and land repurposing.
• Energy efficient transport of minerals products.
• New demand segments for metals, for example in energy storage technologies.
• Novel mineral policy initiatives for mining sustainability.
• Community engagement in minerals developments.
• Social and environmental sustainability of mining and mineral processing.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Allan Trench
Dr. Geoffrey E. Batt
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-anonymized 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.