Byproduct-to-Host Ratios for Assessing the Accessibility of Mineral Resources.

ABSTRACT: Mineral resources are essential for reaching net-zero ambitions by 2050. There is a rising diversity of metals in electricity generation and storage technologies, as well as for mobility technologies. However, little is known about the future supply of minor elements historically mined in low volumes such as indium, tellurium, germanium, or tantalum. Those minor elements are found in lower concentrations in the ores of major elements and therefore rarely form economic deposits on their own. Such elements are often produced as byproducts of a host (or "target commodity", which underpins the bulk of a mine's profitability) in ore, e.g., in porphyry ore, tellurium is a byproduct where copper is the host. As a result, the primary supply of those minor elements depends on the supply of the majo

SUBMITTER: Greffe T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11656709 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature