16.09.2016
Hydrometallurgy Course
Part of the NFR-Boliden-Glencore-Yara Hydromet Project
Sustainable Mining and
(Re-)Use of Metals
Lecture by Jon Petter Omtvedt, UiO
Blindern Campus, 16th September 2016
"If you can't grow it, you have to mine it"
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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"Sustainable"
When a word becomes so popular you begin hearing it everywhere, in all sorts of marginally related or even unrelated contexts, it means one of two things: Either the word has devolved into:
● A meaningless cliché, or ● It has real conceptual heft
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
Slide 3
"Sustainable"
"Green" falls squarely into the first category..
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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"Sustainable"
But "sustainable", which at first conjures up a similarly vague sense of environmental virtue, actually belongs in the second.
It has real conceptual heft.
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
Slide 5
"Sustainable"
But "sustainable", which at first conjures up a similarly vague sense of environmental virtue, actually belongs in the second.
It has real conceptual heft.
.. but "sustainability" is a concept people have a hard time wrapping their minds around ..
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Do YOU know what sustainability really means?
Write a sentence or two about what sustainability is!
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Sustainability
Another word could be:
Enduring Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Hydrometallurgy & Sustainability
Is there a connection?
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
Slide 9
Story of Stuff
The Story of Stuff was written by Annie
Leonard, Louis Fox, and Jonah Sachs,
directed by Louis Fox and produced
by Free Range Studios. Executive
Producers included Tides Foundation
and the Funders Workgroup for
Sustainable Production and
Consumption. It was released in
December 2007.
http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Sustainable Development
Is there a path to Sustainable Development that would give future generations the chance to be as well‐off as their predecessors without running out of natural resources, especially metals? Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Hydrometallurgy Course - September 2016
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Hydrometallurgy Course - September 2016
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Sustainable Development
We have to consider three key resources: 1. The geosphere or primary resources,
2. the technosphere or secondary resources, which can be recycled and
3. human ingenuity and creativity. Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Sustainable Development
We have two resource extremes: natural resources which are completely consumed (fossil fuels) versus natural resources (metals) which are wholly recyclable and can be used again. Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Resource Extremes
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Sustainable Development
Metals survive use and are merely transferred from the geosphere to the technosphere. There will, however, always be a need for contributions from the geosphere to offset inevitable metal losses in the technosphere. Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Hydrometallurgy Course - September 2016
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Sustainable Development
.. but we do have a choice. We do not need raw materials as such, only the intrinsic property of a material that enables it to fulfil a function. At the time when consumption starts to level off, chances improve of obtaining most of the material for our industrial requirements from the technosphere. Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Sustainable Development
.. then a favorable supply equilibrium can emerge. Essential conditions for taking advantage of this opportunity: affordable energy and ingenuity to find new solutions for functions, to optimize processes and to minimize losses in the technosphere. Source: V. Steinbach and F.-W. Wellmer : Consumption and Use of NonRenewable Mineral and Energy Raw Materials from an Economic Geology
Point of View, Sustainability 2010, 2, 1408; doi:10.3390/su2051408
Hydrometallurgy Course – September 2016
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Hydrometallurgy Course - September 2016
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Hydrometallurgy Course - September 2016
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