Green and Low-carbon Extractive Metallurgy of Nonferrous Metals

Metals are the backbone of modern society and are present in everything from infrastructure to tiny electronic devices. However, their extraction and processing come at a significant environmental cost, generating carbon emissions and large volumes of waste. As the world should move towards a sustainable future to mitigate climate warming and air pollution, achieving "zero carbon" and "zero waste" in the metals production sector becomes a crucial imperative. “Green metallurgy”, which primarily refers to environmentally friendly techniques in the metal extraction and recovery processes, and “circular metallurgy”, which mainly refers to by-product recycling and re-use in metallurgical plants in accordance with the circular economy principles, are both precursors for sustainable metallurgical processes.