Characterization of Minerals and Raw Materials Resources Replenishment
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 June 2025 | Viewed by 2468
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mineral resources; responsible mining; mine closure; metals and circular economy; advanced materials characterization (primary and secondary mineral raw materials); geoenvironmental engineering; risk analysis & decision-making analysis; data processing & statistical analysis in earth sciences
Interests: geological modelling; geostatistics; data analysis; mineral resource assessment; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Technological advances and equipment innovation in distinct sectors such as transport industry, medicine, pharmaceutical industry, and food production, as well as the necessities due to the implementation of energy transition policies, have significantly increased the demand for critical raw materials of mineral origin. Although some of the necessities refers to applications and equipment that utilize small quantities of these raw materials, its availability, responsible exploitation, and low recycling rates are aspects of concern that have been contributing to increased investigation and industrial interests regarding technological innovation in (a) mineral and elemental identification in distinct geological and geochemical contexts, (b) remining and efficient exploitability of mining waste, (c) advanced mineral and geochemical characterization in primary and secondary raw material sources, and (d) introducing efficient processing alternatives in the production mine value chains that promote multiple mineral and metal recovery. For most cases, the high level of technological sophistication implies a significant decrease in cut-off grades and mineral liberation size, increasing the necessities for detailed geometallurgic and microscopic studies at millimetric, micrometric, and ideally, in some cases, at nanometric scales.
This Special Issue invites submissions that include original scientific research related with the identification and characterization of minerals and critical elements in primary and secondary resources. The Special Issue focuses on the following topics: (1) the occurrence of critical raw materials in nature, and identification of its exploitable mineralogical forms, and exploitability thresholds; (2) mineral resource identification, liberation size, and cut-off grade in secondary raw materials; (3) microscopic and spectroscopic advanced techniques for elemental and mineral identification and classification such as SEM-EDS, QEMSCAN, LIBS, XRF, EDXRF, and RAMAN; (4) hyperspectral imaging for elemental and mineral identification, including HCLI (Hyperspectral Core Logging Imaging); (5) case studies and applications considering ore and industrial minerals as multiple sources of distinct raw materials; (6) case studies and applications considering secondary raw materials as alternative sources for mineral recovery or industrial mineral production; and (7) discoveries and innovative exploration studies of critical mineral raw materials.
Dr. Sofia Barbosa
Dr. José António de Almeida
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- advanced mineral characterization
- mine value chain optimization
- mining waste resources and exploitability
- mineral resources in secondary raw materials
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