Issues and Challenges in Life Cycle Assessment in the Minerals and Metals Sector: A Chance to Improve Raw Materials Efficiency

Abstract

A critical review was conducted on existing literature concerning life cycle assessment (LCA) and its application to the minerals and metals sector. This extensive literature search uncovers many of the issues that require immediate attention from the scientific community involved with LCA. The methodological drawbacks, mainly problems with inconsistencies in LCA results for the same situation under different assumptions and issues related to data quality, are considered to be the current shortcomings of LCA. In the minerals and metals sector, it is important to increase the objectivity of LCA by way of estimating and reporting those uncertainties; for example, whether land use has to be considered in detail or at a rough level. In regard to abiotic resource characterisation, the weight and time scales to be considered become a very critical issue of judgement. How the temporal and spatial dimensions should be incorporated into LCA is one of the biggest challenges ahead for those who are concerned. Addressing these issues will enable LCA to be used as a policy tool in environmental decision making. There has been enormous unresolved debate with respect to land use impacts, abiotic resource depletion, allocation procedure open-loop recycling and spatial and temporal dimensions. An example case has been presented for Australian iron ore using SimaPro software based on published inventory data to demonstrate that uniformity is required. Discussions aimed at bringing consensus amongst all the stakeholders involved in LCA (i.e. industry, academia, consulting organisations and government) have been presented. In addition, a commentary of different points of view on these issues has been provided. This review brings into perspective some of those contentious issues that are widely debated by many researchers. Finally, the authors conclude with their views on the prospects of LCA for future research endeavours.