For a Circular Economy Classification of Mine Waste

The beneficial use of mining waste is in line with circular economy thinking, bringing several key benefits: saving primary resources and subsequently extending the availability lifetime of highly needed mineral resources, reducing the volume of legacy mining waste, and its environmental impacts, developing a resource beneficiation industry which is less greedy in energy and water. Various classifications were applied to the different types of mine waste, including the grain size, which controls civil engineering applications; the chemical composition and stability; the potential hazards, and the end user sector needs. with none of them covering all the aspects of suitability for beneficial use. Long term liabilities in relation with waste chemical stability may be the most difficult challenge. Developing a reuse project, either by the end users or by the miner himself, will require resource screening along all classifications. There is therefore a need to develop an integrated scheme to facilitate waste reuse as raw minerals.