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Integrating the thermo-ecological and exergy replacement costs to assess mineral processing

Abstract:

Depletion of non-renewable natural resources is one of the factors leading mining industry to move towards sustainability. Undertaking this challenge entails the assessment of mineral resources as well as the mining operations needed to re-concentrate commodities. In this paper, an exergy analysis of six minerals (aluminium, copper, chromium, gold, iron and manganese) processing is accomplished through the application of two complementary methodologies: Thermo-Ecological Cost (TEC) and Exergy Replacement Cost (ERC). The coalescence of both methodologies allows to have an absolute assessment of non-fuel mineral processing.. The TEC evaluates the cumulative consumption of non-renewable exergy required to produce a unit of useful product from the raw materials contained in natural deposits, i.e. from cradle to market; whilst, the ERC accounts for the exergy required to produce minerals from a completely dispersed state to the original conditions in which they were originally found in nature, i.e. from grave to cradle. Results show that cumulative mineral exergy has a greater significance than cumulative fuel exergy, because the concentration exergy is included in the mineral part analysis.