Five Ways ICMM Members are Embracing Circularity

However, even with the predicted future increase in recycling to help bridge the supply gap, it is estimated that more than 300 new mines may still be needed to meet the demand created by the energy transition.[2]

To meet this demand while staying on track to achieve the world’s sustainable development goals, we need to embrace circularity – which helps to boost material efficiency, reduce waste and regenerate nature. 

Metals and minerals are the building blocks of a net zero future. There are no circular economies without these materials. They are durable materials that can be recycled almost indefinitely under the right conditions. But for their contribution to be considered truly circular, we need to focus both on how they are produced and how they are used. In the case of mining, this means having operations that positively contribute to people and the planet, and minimise negative impacts, whilst also working with the wider metals value chain to promote the responsible use and recovery of metals after they enter markets. 

The mining industry has been integrating circular principles at the site level for many years, in part to reduce any negative impacts of extraction but also because it makes good business sense. Reducing waste, increasing use of renewable energy, optimising water usage, regenerating closed mine sites, valorising and recycling other waste such as tyres and focussing on efficiency is already at the heart of strategy in the industry. 

But to become truly circular, we must innovate. By looking at both process and product circularity in tandem — mines can deliver value to communities and nature at site level, while the materials they produce become resources that can be used again and again. For example, significant opportunities exist to create new financial, social and environmental value based around the remining of tailings, use of by-products, or the recovery and recycling of e-waste and zero emission vehicle batteries.

Minsur: Reprocessing of old tailings into high-quality tin concentrate 

In San Rafael, Peru, Minsur is transforming lower grade ore that was once considered waste into a valuable resource. The company is ‘re-mining’ its old tailings to produce high commercial quality tin, a versatile, corrosion-resistant metal used in a wide range of industries, from electronics to food packaging.

Using excavators and trucks, Minsur transports old tailings to an area where the material is prepared for processing. The dry tailings are ‘repulped’ by reintroducing water and sent to a concentrator, which can process 2,500 tonnes of tailings per day. The concentrated tailings are then sent to Minsur’s Pisco smelter and refinery, an industrial facility used for processing extracted ores to produce pure metals, to be turned into metallic tin.

Glencore: Improving product circularity by recycling metals at scale

Glencore has been a participant in the recycling business for over 30 years, centred at its copper and nickel smelters in Canada where the company processes recycles end-of-life electronics, lithium-ion batteries and other critical metal-containing products. In 2022, Glencore’s recycling facilities recovered approximately 31.7 thousand tonnes of copperand 6,200 tonnes of nickel.

Glencore’s Horne smelter, located in Rouyn-Noranda, Canada and founded in 1927, is one of North America’s largest processors of e-waste products containing copper and precious metals, with a total annual processing capacity of 840,000 tonnes of copper and precious metal bearing materials. The Horne smelter is a custom copper smelter which uses both copper concentrates and precious metal bearing recyclable materials to produce a 99.1% copper anode, a block of impure copper that is used in the electrolytic refining process to produce high-purity copper.

The anode is shipped to the Canadian Copper Refinery (CCR) in Montreal to be converted into 99.99% copper cathodes, a highly purified form of copper, which are sold on world markets.

Rio Tinto: Transforming waste streams into a source of revenue for the local community

Several years ago, employees at Rio Tinto’s Diavik diamond mine in Yellowknife, Canada  saw an opportunity to reduce waste whilst supporting the local community by recycling copper wire recovered from old products and materials. Rio Tinto supported this idea and included this volunteering activity as part of a scheduled paid work.

Since the project’s inception, over CA$500,000 has been raised for local charities, with all proceeds going towards Diavik’s Community Contribution Program, and approximately 112 tonnes of copper wire have been diverted from the landfill. In 2022, the Common Ground Crew, an initiative run through the Yellowknife Women’s Society that provides day labour to people experiencing homelessness, was engaged in the initiative, providing residents with several hundred hours of employment while also increasing the volume of copper processed.

Vale: Waste to Value Programme 

Through its Waste to Value programme, Vale has set an ambition to establish a global iron-based metals operation with a minimal waste footprint by 2035, advancing circularity across the entire value chain. The programme is transforming waste and tailings into a valuable resource, while helping to reduce the carbon emissions created during the iron and steel-making processes.

The program includes over 150 circularity initiatives, which have identified a production potential of 7 million tons of products by 2024, using tailings and waste. This initiative aims to create value for communities and promote social and environmental development. Vale aims to achieve around 10% of its iron ore production from circular mining sources by 2030 and reduce CO2 emissions by 1.9 million tons by 2035. This reduction is equivalent to the emissions of 1.2 million cars in a year, also supporting Vale's goal to reduce CO2 emissions.

Highlights include the repurposing of iron ore tailings from dams at Carajás, Brazil into high-grade iron pellets. These pellets help to reduce the carbon emissions created during the iron and steel-making process. Circular mining initiatives are also enabling the elimination of waste rock piles at the Serrinha mine in Minas Gerais, reprocessing material to produce circular iron ore products.

In November 2020, Vale opened its Pico concrete block manufacturing facility, which uses tailings from iron ore processing in a circular economy approach. Each year, the plant will recycle 30,000 metric tons of leftover materials, which would normally be stored in piles and dams, to make 3.8 million concrete blocks that will be used by the construction industry. In 2023, Vale launched the startup Agera to develop and expand its sustainable sand business. Since then, approximately 900,000 tons of this product have been supplied to the construction and road paving sectors. The target is to sell 1.8 million tons of sustainable sand by the end of 2024.

Vale recognises the significance of this program in advancing the company's Mining of the Future vision. It enables initiatives with high potential to reduce tailings, waste, and carbon gas emissions, thus fostering the development of a sustainable and innovative mining model.

Teck Resources: Recycling industrial waste haul truck tires into sustainable paving materials 

Teck is recycling industrial waste and giving old haul truck tires a new life through a pilot project at its Trail Operations and Neptune Terminals in British Columbia, Canada. By recycling these tires into rubberised asphalt, an environmentally friendly paving material that combines traditional asphalt with recycled rubber from tires, Teck is not only reducing waste but is also paving roads with materials that last longer and perform better.

The global asphalt road- building industry uses recycled rubber in certain asphalt mixes to enhance road quality and improve sustainability. Once haul truck tires have reached the end of their use, they are sent to a third-party that separates the rubber before being added to an asphalt mix and shipped to paving companies.

Newmont: CO₂ capture using tailings

Newmont, in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development, is exploring an innovative approach to use tailings for direct air capture of CO₂ that can reduce both emissions and waste. Direct air capture is technology that uses special machines or chemical processes to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. Once captured, the CO₂ can be stored safely underground or used in various products, for example, to produce carbon-negative concrete for infrastructure projects.

This circular initiative helps reduce greenhouse gas levels while repurposing mining by-products.

Notes

[1] COP28. (2024). Global renewables and energy efficiency pledge. Retrieved from: COP28 website

[2] Benchmark Source, 2022, More than 300 new mines required to meet battery demand by 2035, More than 300 new mines required to meet battery demand by 2035 | Benchmark Source (benchmarkminerals.com) (accessed 03.06.2024)