This reprint is tightly related to minerals engineering. The solution mining (heap leaching, in situ leaching, etc.) offers an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and efficient method to extract these minerals, especially copper sulfides (chalcopyrite, chalcocite, etc.), sandstone uranium, and sandstone gold deposits. After years of development, solution mining has made great progress, but it has also encountered some technical bottlenecks. To better understand the current status of low-grade minerals and mine wastes recovery, we carefully collected 13 contributions in this Special Issue, which are mainly divided into following three aspects: - Reaction mechanisms of chemical/bio-leaching-includes the leaching kinetics of copper sulfides, assisted leaching (chloride acidic leaching, iodide assisted leaching, etc.), in situ leaching of uranium and salt deposits, etc. - Process detection, characterization, and visualization-includes the detection of reaction products, visualization of fluid flow and mass transfer, pore strucutre characterization of leaching systems (ore-packed beds, etc.), microbial successions of leaching bacteria, etc. - Recovery, recycle, and reuse of mine wastes-includes cleaner leaching, disposal or production methods (dump leaching, etc.), the recovery of mine waste (waste rock, tailings, etc.), assessment of operations problems, etc.

The need for efficient and sustainable management methods of mine waste is continuously growing all around the world. These waste products often present serious management problems due to their more or less significant amounts and possible environmental threats. This Special Issue highlights the recent and new trends in sustainable mine waste management techniques. Currently, it is essential to sustainably manage mine waste, considering social, economic, environmental and technical aspects. In this Special Issue, insights related to the following issues are highlighted: the problems around mine waste, the fine characterization of mine waste, the latest available technical and environmental solutions to efficiently manage mine waste, including treatment and processing before disposal and high value element recovery, with the view of moving towards defining effective, low-cost and ecofriendly methods, the recycling of mine waste products as alternative resources in different sectors, and finally laboratory, pilot and/or industrial-scale studies related to these topics of research. Scientists and industry and governance stakeholders have to face these new challenges to find the best management practices for the future.

Today's best practice in environmental mine-waste management requires a thorough understanding of the wastes produced. The knowledge of mine wastes represents a new interdisciplinary science and this book provides an introductory, descriptive and analytic overview of the wastes produced in the mineral industry. It describes the characterization, prediction, monitoring, disposal and treatment as well as environmental impacts. Intended for undergraduate courses, it systematically builds the reader’s understanding and knowledge of the wastes produced, their physical and chemical characteristics, and how to deal responsibly with them on a short and long-term basis. The text employs 22 case studies spanning the world’s mineral industry that elucidate best practice and specific challenges in mine-waste management and site rehabilitation.

Recent Advances in Mining and Processing of Low-Grade and Submarginal Mineral Deposits reviews advances in the mining and processing of low-grade and submarginal mineral deposits, taking into account the environmental considerations that increasingly are being regarded as a necessary prerequisite to acceptable mineral resources development. The focus is on marginal and sub-marginal ores, as well as ores of above normal cut-off grades which for some reason cannot be mined and/or processed economically at current technological or economic levels. This book is comprised of 12 chapters and begins with an overview of low-grade ore potential, followed by a discussion on the theoretical and practical aspects of in situ mining. Block cave-in place leaching, biological leaching of sulfide ores, and nuclear chemical mining of primary copper sulfides are also considered. Subsequent chapters explore the economics and safety of nuclear chemical copper mining; hydrometallurgy of low-grade copper ores; trends in process metallurgy; and environmental aspects of mining and processing low-grade and submarginal mineral deposits. This monograph should be of interest to mining officials and professionals.

Metal recycling is a complex business that is becoming increasingly difficult! Recycling started long ago, when people realized that it was more resource- and cost-efficient than just throwing away the resources and starting all over again. In this report, we discuss how to increase metal-recycling rates - and thus resource efficiency - from both quantity and quality viewpoints. The discussion is based on data about recycling input, and the technological infrastructure and worldwide economic realities of recycling. Decision-makers set increasingly ambitious targets for recycling, but far too much valuable metal today is lost because of the imperfect collection of end-of-life (EoL) products, improper practices, or structural deficiencies within the recycling chain, which hinder achieving our goals of high resource efficiency and resource security, and of better recycling rates.

This book describes emerging and established industrial processes of biomining technologies used for the recovery of metals of economic interest from, e.g. mineral ores, mining and electronic wastes using microbiological technologies. Multiple chapters focus on engineering design and operation of biomining systems. Several industrial case studies from China, Chile, Peru, Russia/Kazakhstan and Finland are included, which emphasises the practical approach of the book. The reader not only learns more about the biology, diversity and ecology of microorganisms involved in biomining processes, but also about microbial biomolecular and cultivation tools used in the biomining industry. Special emphasis is put on emerging biotechnologies enabling the use of biomining for recycling metals from e-wastes, waste streams and process waters. Finally, the future impacts and direction of biomining towards sustainability in a metal-demanding world are also highlighted. The book is aimed at an interdisciplinary audience involving operators and researchers working across disciplines including geology, chemical engineering, microbiology and molecular biology. This is reflected by the content of this book, as well as by its authors, who are all leading practitioners and authorities in their fields.