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https://theconversation.com/nose-to-tail-mining-how-making-sand-from-ore-could-solve-a-looming-crisis-250284>
"Every year, the world consumes around 50 billion tonnes of sand, gravel and
crushed stone. The astonishing scale of this demand is hard to comprehend –
12.5 million Olympic sized swimming pools per year – making it the most-used
solid material by humans.
Most of us don’t see the sand and gravel all around us. It’s hidden in concrete
footpaths and buildings, the glass in our windows and in the microchips that
drive our technology.
Demand is set to increase further – even as the extraction of sand and gravel
from rivers, lakes, beaches and oceans is triggering an environmental crisis.
Sand does renew naturally, but in many regions, natural sand supplies are being
depleted far faster than they can be replenished. Desert sand often has grains
too round for use in construction and deserts are usually far from cities,
while sand alternatives made by crushing rock are energy- and
emissions-intensive.
But there’s a major opportunity here, as we outline in our new research. Every
year, the mining industry crushes and discards billions of tonnes of the same
minerals as waste during the process of mining metals. By volume, mining waste
is the single largest source of waste we make.
There’s nothing magical about sand. It’s made up of particles of weathered
rock. Gravel is larger particles. Our research has found companies mining
metals can get more out of their ores, by processing the ore to produce sand as
well.
This would solve two problems at once: how to avoid mining waste and how to
tackle the sand crisis. We dub this “nose-to-tail” mining, following the trend
in gastronomy to use every part of an animal."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
