Damien Giurco

Copper Cycles: Modelling Material Flows, Technologies and Environmental Impacts Damien Giurco

The environmental impacts of resource use in society are being increasingly scrutinised, particularly in response to the challenge of climate change. We need to better understand the impacts of producing and recycling metals through the global economy. Traditional approaches, namely, those seeking increased efficiency largely within processing technologies, must be broadened to consider the entire production and consumption cycle. With copper as its focus, this book develops a multi-scale framework for characterising material flows through the production and consumption cycle. Models of material flows and of existing and new copper processing technologies are linked to inform environmental performance, based on a Life Cycle Impact Assessment approach. The analysis shows how an increased recycling of copper reduces environmental impacts far more dramatically than introducing new technology for processing terrestrial ores, which themselves are declining in quality. This data-rich work will be of interest to academics, minerals industry professionals and policy makers with an interest in developing strategies to deliver resource governance for sustainability.