MULTIDISCIPLINARY STRATEGY FOR OPTIMISED MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY OF SECONDARY AND CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS FROM MINING RESIDUES

MILIA, STEFANO; CAPPAI, GIOVANA; SILVANI, VANESA ANALÍA; SCOTTI, ADALGISA; PASSERI, DANIELE; SALVATORI, ROSAMARIA; TRAPASSO, FRANCESCA; COLOMBO, ROXANA; GODEAS, ALICIA MARGARITA; UBALDINI, STEFANO; GUGLIETTA, DANIELA

Congreso; EU-Latin America Convention on Raw Material; 2021

In recent years, the recovery of secondary and critical raw materials (SRMs and CRMs, respectively) from wastes has become a priority. New strategies implementing a resource-efficient and competitive economy, which transforms environmental problems into opportunities, are encouraged at global (UN Sustainable Development Goals, SDG) and regional scale (EU Green Deal). In the mining sector, novel technologies make deposits of wastes a potential source of valuable minerals and metals, which can be profitably recovered and put into the market. Despite the large amount of mining residues produced worldwide, accurate information (i.e., exact positioning in the mining area, potential minerals to be still exploited, etc.) is missing, although it is fundamental for their correct management and economic exploitation. In this study, a multidisciplinary and eco-sustainable strategy is presented for the valorisation of mining residues: 1) mapping and classification of mining residues using by new sensitive technologies (such as remote sensing); 2) chemical, physical and morphological characterization of mine residues using advanced methods; 3) mycorrhizal-assisted phytoextraction (MAP) of SRMs and CRMs from mining residues, with their consequent accumulation on biomass tissues; 4) recovery of SRMs and CRMs from biomass through hydrometallurgy and/or electrochemical methods.