The raw materials industry in the face of environmental challenges: trends and mitigation strategies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7494/jrme.2026.1.1.8605Keywords:
mineral processing, environment, raw materials, dust, LCOEAbstract
The paper concerns selected environmental issues associated with the global raw materials sector, focusing on ores, coal, cement, and quarrying. Global mining production of mineral resources exhibits a steady upward trend, currently reaching about 19 billion tonnes per year, with energy resources holding a dominant share in both worldwide production and the economic structure of the sector. Such an immense scale of operations generates severe environmental problems, such as contamination of ecosystems and landscape transformation. The aggregate production sector is primarily responsible for air pollution through particulate matter emissions, as well as exhaust gas emissions from transportation. In the coal industry, key challenges include fugitive methane emissions during extraction and massive amounts of carbon dioxide generated during combustion. Cement plants, in turn, represent a major source of nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, and toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and chromium, as well as CO2 (clinker production). The primary objective of this paper is to highlight these issues in detail and to present modern technical methods for their effective mitigation. The implementation of integrated ecological management strategies enables the raw materials industry to successfully reduce emissions while maintaining cost efficiency.
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