OPPORTUNITY FOR CLEANER COPPER PRODUCTION

Milan . Trumi , Maja S. Trumi , Ljubia Andri

University of Belgrade, Technical faculty in Bor, VJ 12, p.o. 50, 19210 Bor, Serbia 2 ITNMS, Bulevar Fran d'Eperea 86, Belgrade, Serbia mtrumic@tf.bor.ac.rs

ABSTRACT The main goal of the sustained development is to provide the future generations with as much possibilities as we have had so far. One of the key issues of its sustainability is the awareness of the fact that the natural and material resources on our planet are limited. The cleaner production presents the goal which perfectly fit into the efforts leading to the sustained development. The strategy for Sustainable development in the mining industry is being reduced to permanent, long-term reduction of consuming primary metals reserves, with the constant increase of the recycling metal production. The intent is to equalize the production with consumption. Metal waste present a very important secondary resource, and if it is being collected and returned into the process of a new treatment, we will reduce the usage of primary resources, prolong the life of their reserves and reduce the pollution of the environment. The metal reprocessing from waste, as well as the general reprocessing of some other materials (RECYCLING), present the future, which can be accomplished only by an integral approach to the problem and which in its essence tends towards the sustained development. Key words: Sustainable development, cleaner production, primary resources
INTRODUCTION Natural resources usually mean all the matters that come out from the Earth-soil, plants, animals, water, oil, metals and so on. All we eat, use or buy present either the natural resource or something that have come out of it. Natural resources are all around us, and due to the increased needs, we consume them very quickly. A lot of natural resources are being exhausted faster than they can be replaced by new ones. Regardless the type, structure and particular quantities, they are the base for the future economic and business development of every country, and Serbia too. It is quite logical that there is part of natural resources which must stay away from any economic and business flows, which in fact, must be saved for today's and future generations, and it is particularly true for those resources which are hard to renew and those nonrenewable resources. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The generally accepted definition of sustained development is the one which created the Brundthland's commission: The sustained development is the development which satisfies the needs of today's generation without jeopardizing the rights of future generations to satisfy their needs. The main goal of the sustained development is to provide the future generations with as much possibilities as we have had so far. One of the key issues of its sustainability is the awareness of the fact that the natural and material resources on our planet are limited. The cleaner production presents the goal which perfectly fit into the efforts leading to the sustained development. The strategy of sustained development in the field of exploiting mineral raw materials, leads towards a permanent and long-term reduction of using the primary mineral reserves accompanied at the same time by a permanent increase of metal (mineral) production out of the recycling process, leading up to the final goal, that is, to equalize it with its usage. CLEANER PRODUCTION The beginning of the twentieth century has become the turning point with the appearance of the globalization of ecological problems and more intensive degradation of human environment as well. The former approaches to these problems were avoided, and they could be grouped into three categories:
Make it dirty and run away, this approach was typical for the places with a small number of inhabitants and it consisted of population migrations caused by the degradation of the surrounding (most commonly due to the cultivable soil degradation). Dilute and disperse, this was one of the ways how to control waste in the pre-industrial period based on the natural capacity of self-cleaning. Concentrate and keep for some time, it was considered a good method of waste management in situ, that is, for controlling dumping of toxic and nuclear waste. However, due to the destroying of containers and/or the mere control, it was impossible to guarantee a long-term dumping without a leaking process.

It was only in the last 10-15 years that experts got an idea that the reduction of harmful element emission should be done at the source of their presence. This strategy of preventing pollution and minimizing waste was really necessary in order to reduce the enormous expenses for cleaning up, especially from the moment when the legal system introduced the regulation: the polluter pays. This new approach, called cleaner production, is promising as it unites both ecology and business sides of the problem. The cleaner production is, in fact, a preventive approach. The main aim of the cleaner production is to focus on the prevention or reduction the quantity of waste, as well as the non-efficient usage of energy and resources. In order to achieve all these issues, it is necessary to adopt new technologies and techniques, together with new values and ways for satisfying needs of mankind. Besides, this new approach should be applied to the production process, consumption and supplying goods and services in order to get the same or higher production rate with much less energy and resources consumption.

FINAL CONSIDERATION Metal waste present a very important secondary resource, and if it is being collected and returned into the process of a new treatment, we will reduce the usage of primary resources, prolong the life of their reserves and reduce the pollution of the environment. The metal reprocessing from waste, as well as the general reprocessing of some other materials (RECYCLING), present the future, which can be accomplished only by an integral approach to the problem and which in its essence tends towards the sustained development. Metal waste is a very rich raw material compared to the mere ore; what is more, the transport and handling are much cheaper. The investment expenses for building up the facilities for waste processing and metal production amounts only 16 to 20% out of the costs necessary for building up facilities for processing the primary material-ore. Besides, the processing, technologies based on processing the secondary minerals (metals), are much simpler and even more convenient for the environment.
REFERENCES 1. Silvia H. Bonilla, et all., The roles of cleaner production in the sustainable development of modern societies: an introduction to this special issue, Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) pp.1-5 2. Milan . Trumi, Radule Toovi, National Strategy for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Mineral Processing, VII Mineral Processing Colloquium, Belgrade, Serbia, (2006), pp. 58-69. 3. Hugo Marcelo Veit, et all., Rocovery of copper from printed circuit board scrap by mechanical processing and electrometallurgy, Journal of Hazardous materials B 137 (2006), pp. 1704-1709

OPPORTUNITY FOR CLEANER COPPER PRODUCTION Mineral resources belong to the group of nonrenewable resources. These are exhaustive resources and that is why it is necessary to use them rationally, that is, to save them. The proper way to do it nowadays can be achieved by recycling, substitution and import. For example, in Bor, the average copper content in the ore amounts to around 0,25%. For the production of one tone of cathodic copper, some 999 tones of dangerous waste have been produced. The usage of mineral resources causes a dangerous environmental pollution and it is usually accompanied by the following issues: high soil degradation, high air pollution, high pollution of surface and underground water, high quantities of solid and liquid waste, high quantities of waste waters Copper can also be obtained from secondary raw materials, for example, from electronic waste. The average copper content in printed circuit boards amounts to around 9,7%. The content of precious metals is also higher in these printed boards (Ag~0,06%, Au~0,023%, Pd~0,01%) in relation to their content in mineral raw materials, consequently all of these facts point to the economical importance of recycling. As an IC board contains a high copper concentration, it can be directly sent to the plant for smelting without any previous treatment. However, by smelting process it is not possible to obtain plastics and ceramics, which are present with some 30% in the printed circuit boards and which, during the melting process, cause the formation of dioxine and fuaran which pollute air and have a negative influence on the environment. If these materials are extracted in some other pretreatment (by a mechanical procedure), they can be applied in the civil-engineering industry. For the pretreatment of printed circuit board (IC) there are the whole series of different technological processes, but the things that are of special interest for mineral processing engineers are that the majority of them are based on the procedures and technologies of mineral processing. By means of these processes, it is possible to achieve the metal recovery of 80%. A great variety of materials, which are used in electric production, have a direct influence on the complexity of technologies of the mechanic recycling of these products. The most common separation methods in the recycling process of electronic devices-printed circuit b o a rds - a re : M a g n e t i c c o n c e n tra t i o n , E le c tr i c concentration, Gravity concentration. With these methods can be achieved higher recovery of the present metals, and in accordance with the fact that there is no water or chemical additions in combination with these procedures, there is no problem of waste waters and it is the proper thing that makes this process economically more convenient, and what is more, for the environment more acceptable than the metallurgical processes. Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia under the Project TR 33007