Futureproof Your Planet: Rocks to Resources and Sustainable Use of Critical Metals

Metals are crucial to our daily lives and the journey to Net Zero.
This talk by Dr Richard Kimber and Dr Natalie Farrell uncovers how geosciences can meet rising metal demands sustainably. Richard reveals how microbes turn waste into treasure, while Natalie shows how geology helps us extract metals responsibly.
Join them to discover the future of sustainable metal recovery.
----
Our researchers will be at the premiere watching right beside you! So feel free to drop your sustainability questions and comments in the live chat to get them answered!
Join us for more masterclasses: uom.link/fyp-m...
#futureproof #climatechange

[@UoMSciEng]

Just following up on some of your great questions! Can we extract any metals without emitting CO2 to the environment? "Bacteria can be used to extract metals from rocks through bioleaching reducing the need for chemicals. Some of these bacteria even consume CO2. Bacteria can also help us recover metals from waste sources without generating CO2." - Dr Richard Kimber. "Yes potentially by finding aqueous sources of metals. These are brines found in rocks (often associated with geothermal prospects) containing metals that have been leached from minerals in the rocks. The geological process of how the metals are removed from the minerals and leached into the fluids are poorly understood and very exciting for geoscientists." - Dr Natalie Farrell. ​​Are there other alternatives that could do what lithium does in recharge ability? "Yes there are lots of other metals that can be used in batteries but none have the unique lightweight plus high energy density of lithium. There are around 20 critical metals. ie. metals needed for the 'energy transition'." - Dr Natalie Farrell. Can metal used in electronics chip reused after chip gets damaged? "There is a huge amount of e-waste that contains very useful metals, even if the device was damaged. There is 100 times more gold in a tonne of e-waste than in a tonne of gold ore." - Dr Richard Kimber How does thermodynamics and fluids link to rocks and ores? "Thermodynamics controls the mineralisation of rocks, what minerals are formed and what elements (i.e. metals) are incorporated into those minerals. Thermodynamic processes also control the solubility of minerals and the process of dissolving minerals and leaching metals out into fluids. Understanding thermodynamics is critical to mineralogy, metamorphism and magmatic processes." - Dr Natalie Farrell