Sustainable Extraction and Reuse of Metallurgical Wastes: Towards Circular Practices
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 27 June 2025 | Viewed by 917
Special Issue Editors
Interests: green solvents; separation processes; electrolyte thermodynamics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: leaching; hydrometallurgy; metal dissolution; green solvents; circular economy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The mining and metallurgical industries are crucial to the global economy, but they also pose significant environmental challenges. The generation of large volumes of solid and liquid wastes, often containing valuable metals and hazardous substances, necessitates sustainable management practices. In recent years, the concept of a circular economy has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges. By minimizing waste generation, maximizing resource recovery, and promoting recycling and reuse, circular economy principles can help reduce the environmental impact of the mining and metallurgical industries.
This Special Issue aims to explore innovative strategies for the sustainable extraction and reuse of metallurgical wastes. We invite contributions that address the following topics:
- Waste characterization and assessment: Understanding the physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties of metallurgical wastes for developing effective recycling and reuse technologies.
- Hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes: Investigating the application of hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical techniques for the recovery of valuable metals from metallurgical wastes.
- Bioleaching and bioremediation: Exploring the use of microorganisms to extract metals from low-grade ores and waste materials, as well as to remediate contaminated sites.
- Material recovery and recycling technologies: Developing efficient and cost-effective technologies for the recovery of metals, minerals, and other valuable materials from metallurgical wastes.
- Environmental impact assessment and life cycle analysis: Assessing the environmental impacts of different waste management strategies and identifying opportunities for improvement.
By fostering interdisciplinary research and collaboration, this Special Issue seeks to contribute to the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions for the management of metallurgical wastes.
Dr. Yecid Jimenez Bellott
Dr. Pía Hernández
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. 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
- metallurgical waste
- circular economy
- sustainable mining
- waste management
- metal recovery
- recycling
- bioleaching
- hydrometallurgy
- pyrometallurgy
- environmental impact assessment
- life cycle analysis
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