Towards Sustainable Mining: Exploiting Raw Materials from Extractive Waste Facilities

Giovanna Antonella Dino, Alessandro Cavallo, Piergiorgio Rossetti, Ernő Garamvölgyi, Renáta Sándor and Frederic Coulon
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Giovanna Antonella Dino: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, 10125 Torino, Italy
Alessandro Cavallo: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy
Piergiorgio Rossetti: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, 10125 Torino, Italy
Ernő Garamvölgyi: Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research, H3519 Miskolc, Hungary
Renáta Sándor: Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research, H3519 Miskolc, Hungary
Frederic Coulon: School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: The focus of the present research is on the exploitation of extractive waste to recover raw materials, considering the technological and economic factors, together with the environmental impacts, associated with extractive waste quarrying and dressing activities. The present study, based on a case history from Northern Italy (Montorfano and Baveno granite quarrying area), was intended to validate the presented interdisciplinary approach for evaluating economic and environmental impacts associated with extractive waste facility exploitation (from granite waste to products for the ceramic industry and by-products for the building industry). A shared methodology was applied to determine extractive waste characteristics (geochemistry, petrography, and mineralogy), waste volume (geophysical, topographic, and morphologic 3D characterization) and potential exploitable products and by-products. Meanwhile, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to determine the environmental impacts associated with the extraction and processing phases.

Keywords: granite waste; feldspar production; REE; LCA; circular economy; sustainable mining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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