Energy-Saving Green Technologies in the Mining and Mineral Processing Industry

Pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgyHydrometallurgy are the two main processes to recover valuable metals from ore and secondary resources. While pyrometallurgy uses high temperatures to extract metals, in hydrometallurgyHydrometallurgy, an aqueous solution is used to extract metals from mineral resources. As a result, hydrometallurgical techniques are considered to be energy-saving technologies in the miningMining and mineral processingMineral processing industry. This paper will address how energyEnergy can be reduced to extract metals in the miningMining and mineral processingMineral processing industries with an emphasis on the extraction of base metals such as zinc and copper. Our novel techniques can even reduce more energyEnergy than what is currently consumed in the conventional hydrometallurgical copper electrowinning processes. Those energy-saving and sustainable green technologies would help meet the NetZeroNetZero target in the miningMining and mineral processingMineral processing industries.