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Published on: July 1, 2016
Mining Critical Metals and Elements from Seawater: Opportunities and Challenges
Mamadou S Diallo1,2, Madhusudhana Rao Kotte1, Manki Cho1
1†Graduate School of EEWS (Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea.
Seawater offers a vast, untapped resource for critical technology metals essential for clean energy and sustainable manufacturing. Mining these metals presents significant opportunities and challenges for future resource recovery.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Environmental Science
- Geochemistry
Background:
- Global economy relies on a sustainable supply of technology metals.
- Clean energy and sustainable manufacturing demand critical metals like REEs, PGMs, lithium, copper, cobalt, silver, and gold.
- Seawater is recognized as a significant, underutilized source of these valuable elements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss the opportunities and challenges of mining critical metals from seawater.
- To highlight recent advancements in seawater metal extraction.
- To provide an outlook on the future of resource recovery from marine environments.
Main Methods:
- Review of industrial ecology principles.
- Analysis of water purification techniques for resource recovery.
- Assessment of advancements in metal extraction technologies from seawater.
Main Results:
- Seawater contains substantial quantities of critical technology metals.
- Progress in industrial ecology and water purification enhances resource recovery potential.
- Extraction technologies are advancing, though challenges remain.
Conclusions:
- Seawater represents a promising frontier for sourcing critical metals.
- Further research and technological development are needed to overcome extraction challenges.
- Sustainable mining of seawater resources is key to future supply chains.
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