Topic: Contribution of Mineral Processing and Metallurgical Technology to Sustainable Development of World Mining Industry

With regular reports of record flooding, almost uncontrolled wildfires and increasingly violent and frequent storms caused by climate change, nearly every industry worldwide has started to seriously assess their sustainability and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Nor can mining and metallurgical industries be immune to this trend, and renewed efforts are required to ensure their future sustainable development.

While mining in the metal production process requires the lion's share of energy input and financial costs, the final processing and further beneficiation of mined minerals play an equally important role in ensuring sustainability across the industry. It is therefore highly commendable that a young and ambitious new journal in the field, Minerals and Mineral Materials, has launched a Special Issue to focus on the role that mineral processing and novel metallurgical technology can play in promoting the sustainability of the world mining industry. New mineral processing equipment, improved scientific knowledge in the field of mineral processing and several new developments around pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical improvements are reported regularly in today's technical and general literature, and this Special Issue aims to contribute to this debate.

Researchers across the fields of mineral processing research and investigations into new metallurgical technologies are invited to submit contributions to this open access journal to stimulate the dissemination of information, foster new collaborations and accelerate the pace of change in the world mining industry community to enhance our contribution to human welfare and ensure our own survival in this industry in which we all work. As highly responsible professionals, we not only have a responsibility to the society in which we live, but have a moral obligation to contribute to the survival of our race and the prosperity of our chosen profession in the interest of ourselves and future generations.

I look forward to your contributions over the entire spectrum of the topics in this Special Issue.

Yours sincerely,
H. Potgieter (prof)
Guest Editor