Abstract
In view of the growing need for natural resources for a sustainable supply of industrial materials, access to low-grade materials will become a necessity. It has been estimated that high-grade iron ore reserves will be insufficient in 30 to 50 years' time. This will lead to an increase in the production of fine-grained concentrates, which will be pumped over long distances. These materials need to be agglomerated for use in conventional blast furnaces, and unconventional materials need to be adapted for their use.
As mining depths increase in an increasingly hostile environment, mechanized and robotized mining is the goal of many precious metals producers. These machines will have to explore the underground mine autonomously, identifying profitable areas and avoiding dangerous ones.
Due to the considerable carbon effects produced by the cement industry, for many producers the objective becomes the alternating use of pozzolanic materials. These are often derived from existing wastes such as slag dumps, thus simultaneously recovering valuable residual materials.
The needs of the electronics industry are increasingly oriented towards the more exotic elements such as Li, Ta and REE. The monopoly of supply is one of the factors that will also have an impact on future efforts to ensure continuity.
Production of the above elements increasingly comes from undeveloped or politically unstable regions of the world, and conflicts are fuelled by the availability of these resources. Also, major changes in the population due to new mining ventures play a role in the availability of social services.
Due to the low cost of quarry mining, the visual and environmental impacts of large-scale operations such as coal, iron ore, bauxite or copper mining are multiplying and need to be adequately addressed.
