The Role of Mineral Processing Technology in a Society Based on Recycling

Abstract

Industrial systems and daily life in Japan are shifting to a society based on recycling to reduce energy and resource consumption. To establish a society based on recycling urban resource recovery centers (mines) are important as places to reduce waste volumes, reusing and recycling valuable materials with application of mineral processing technology. The authors have reviewed applications of mineral processing in urban mines, and recent developments in common separation methods, magnetic separation, gravity separation, flotation, and agglomeration in liquid.

Evaluation Method of Metal Resource Recyclability Based on Thermodynamic Analysis

“…Under these circumstances, in recent years, the concept of urban mines [4][5][6][7] and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) [6][7][8][9][10] have attracted significant attention. There are differing views on who and when the concept of urban mines was proposed.…”

“…Nanjo 4) defined an urban mine as ''a place on the earth's surface where industrial products, which are considered as renewable resources, are stored.'' Tsunekawa et al 5) stated that an urban mine is a place where secondary resources in urban areas are converted or recycled into usable materials and discussed the importance of technology to separate and refine secondary resources. Shiratori and Nakamura proposed the concept of ''Reserve to Stock (R-to-S) '' for the development of a metal recycling system that focuses on urban mines.…”