Assessment of Secondary Zinc and Lead Resources

Abstract

When addressing the sustainable use of metals, one must consider not only primary metals in the natural environment but also alternative resources, such as secondary metals found in society. For that purpose, elucidating the availability of secondary metals, that is secondary metal reserve, is very important. A classification framework of the secondary resourcesSecondary resources was applied to investigate their applicability to Zn and Pb and to assess the secondary Zn and PbSecondary Zn/Pb reserves and resources of major targeted countries. Estimates show that Japan and the United States have secondary Zn reserves of 14 Mt and 13 Mt, respectively, and showed the total estimated amount of secondary Zn reserves of the studied countries is equivalent to about 24% of the global primary Zn reserves. On a per-capita basis, France, Germany, and Japan have the largest secondary Zn reserves. The application of a classification framework showed that a considerable amount of secondary Zn resources is found in landfills, providing a future potential target for secondary Zn landfill mining. The framework provides details about the sizes and locations of secondary Zn and Pb resources. This information is useful for both industry and policymakers to maximize access to valuable secondary Zn and PbSecondary Zn/Pb sources. This study also highlights the necessity for the integrated management of primary and secondary resourcesSecondary resources.