Abstract
The focus of the present research is on the exploitation of extractive waste to recover raw materials, considering the technological and economic factors, together with the environmental impacts, associated with extractive waste quarrying and dressing activities. The present study, based on a case history from Northern Italy (Montorfano and Baveno granite quarrying area), was intended to validate the presented interdisciplinary approach for evaluating economic and environmental impacts associated with extractive waste facility exploitation (from granite waste to products for the ceramic industry and by-products for the building industry). A shared methodology was applied to determine extractive waste characteristics (geochemistry, petrography, and mineralogy), waste volume (geophysical, topographic, and morphologic 3D characterization) and potential exploitable products and by-products. Meanwhile, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to determine the environmental impacts associated with the extraction and processing phases.
Highlights
IntroductionThe commodities considered “critical” for EU economy are mainly constituted by REE [4,5,6,7,8] and base and precious metals such as copper, lithium, aluminum, silver, steel, nickel, lead, and zinc [9]
The demand for raw materials (RM) and critical raw materials (CRM) is continuously growing; this increment is highly connected to the development of climate-benefit technologies as well as intra-technology and high-technology [1]
The commodities considered “critical” for EU economy are mainly constituted by REE [4,5,6,7,8] and base and precious metals such as copper, lithium, aluminum, silver, steel, nickel, lead, and zinc [9]. The supply of these CRM is highly connected to international geopolitics strategies and global market conditions as most of the CRM are exploited in non-EU countries (Table 1), causing high economic dependence for the EU
Summary
The commodities considered “critical” for EU economy are mainly constituted by REE [4,5,6,7,8] and base and precious metals such as copper, lithium, aluminum, silver, steel, nickel, lead, and zinc [9]. The supply of these CRM is highly connected to international geopolitics strategies and global market conditions as most of the CRM are exploited in non-EU countries (Table 1), causing high economic dependence for the EU
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