Sustainability of non-fuel minerals in the U.S.: A Copper Stocks and Flows Analysis

Abstract

Mined materials have constantly growing environmental footprints, as population and economic growth continue to increase demand, while ore grades continue to decline. Effective assessment of mineral sustainability, therefore, need to consider management of the entire life cycle of a material, from extraction through end of life and recycling to optimize circularity. This work will assess the sustainability of extraction and utilization of metal resources in the U.S. using copper as a case study. A stocks and flows model is developed for the complete copper life cycle, from extraction, processing, manufacturing, use, through end of life, which includes empirical data for all phases and includes a multi-year analysis.The identification and inclusion of complete end of life data in this materials flow analysis is a contribution to the knowledge base as existing models primarily predict this value based on use-phase lifetime, and do not include primary data. The model is used to identify specific life cycle phases that either enable or limit circularity of copper, and to provide guidance and insight to improve the sustainability of copper extraction and utilization.