Abstract:
The minerals industry has been adopting new strategies to reduce energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which, in turn, can be regarded as environmental impacts from the standpoint of sustainability. In spite of the important efforts that have been made towards this goal in plants during their operation, it is evident that the greatest opportunity in reducing these impacts for an industrial operation is in the design stage of the plant. However, in spite of this potential, only a few experiences and systematic implementations based on sustainability principles have been undertaken in the minerals industry. The present paper proposes a methodology based on sustainability principles applied to beneficiation operations, using a simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based approach. The proposed methodology has special emphasis on comminution of Brazilian ores, having been applied to itabirite iron ores, whose beneficiation is becoming strategic for current and future projects in Brazil.
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