Description: technologyComment of gold mine operation and refining (SE): OPEN PIT MINING: The ore is mined in four steps: drilling, blasting, loading and hauling. In the case of a surface mine, a pattern of holes is drilled in the pit and filled with explosives. The explosives are detonated in order to break up the ground so large shovels or front-end loaders can load it into haul trucks. ORE AND WASTE HAULAGE: The haul trucks transport the ore to various areas for processing. The grade and type of ore determine the processing method used. Higher-grade ores are taken to a mill. Lower grade ores are taken to leach pads. Some ores may be stockpiled for later processing. HEAP LEACHING: The ore is crushed or placed directly on lined leach pads where a dilute cyanide solution is applied to the surface of the heap. The solution percolates down through the ore, where it leaches the gold and flows to a central collection location. The solution is recovered in this closed system. The pregnant leach solution is fed to electrowinning cells and undergoes the same steps as described below from Electro-winning. ORE PROCESSING: Milling: The ore is fed into a series of grinding mills where steel balls grind the ore to a fine slurry or powder. Oxidization and leaching: Some types of ore require further processing before gold is recovered. In this case, the slurry is pressure-oxidized in an autoclave before going to the leaching tanks or a dry powder is fed through a roaster in which it is oxidized using heat before being sent to the leaching tanks as a slurry. The slurry is thickened and runs through a series of leaching tanks. The gold in the slurry adheres to carbon in the tanks. Stripping: The carbon is then moved into a stripping vessel where the gold is removed from the carbon by pumping a hot caustic solution through the carbon. The carbon is later recycled. Electro-winning: The gold-bearing solution is pumped through electro-winning cells or through a zinc precipitation circuit where the gold is recovered from the solution. Smelting: The gold is then melted in a furnace at about 1’064°C and poured into moulds, creating doré bars. Doré bars are unrefined gold bullion bars containing between 60% and 95% gold. References: Newmont (2004) How gold is mined. Newmont. Retrieved from http://www.newmont.com/en/gold/howmined/index.asp technologyComment of gold-silver mine operation with refinery (PG): OPEN PIT MINING: The ore is mined in four steps: drilling, blasting, loading and hauling. In the case of a surface mine, a pattern of holes is drilled in the pit and filled with explosives. The explosives are detonated in order to break up the ground so large shovels or front-end loaders can load it into haul trucks. ORE AND WASTE HAULAGE: The haul trucks transport the ore to various areas for processing. The grade and type of ore determine the processing method used. Higher-grade ores are taken to a mill. Lower grade ores are taken to leach pads. Some ores may be stockpiled for later processing. HEAP LEACHING: The recovery processes of the Misima Mine are cyanide leach and carbon in pulp (CIP). The ore is crushed or placed directly on lined leach pads where a dilute cyanide solution is applied to the surface of the heap. The solution percolates down through the ore, where it leaches the gold and flows to a central collection location. The solution is recovered in this closed system. The pregnant leach solution is fed to electrowinning cells and undergoes the same steps as described below from Electro-winning. ORE PROCESSING: Milling: The ore is fed into a series of grinding mills where steel balls grind the ore to a fine slurry or powder. Oxidization and leaching: The recovery process in the Porgera Mine is pressure oxidation and cyanide leach. The slurry is pressure-oxidized in an autoclave before going to the leaching tanks or a dry powder is fed through a roaster in which it is oxidized using heat before being sent to the leaching tanks as a slurry. The slurry is thickened and runs through a series of leaching tanks. The gold in the slurry adheres to carbon in the tanks. Stripping: The carbon is then moved into a stripping vessel where the gold is removed from the carbon by pumping a hot caustic solution through the carbon. The carbon is later recycled. Electro-winning: The gold-bearing solution is pumped through electro-winning cells or through a zinc precipitation circuit where the gold is recovered from the solution. Smelting: The gold is then melted in a furnace at about 1’064°C and poured into moulds, creating doré bars. Doré bars are unrefined gold bullion bars containing between 60% and 95% gold. WATER SUPPLY: For Misima Mine, process water is supplied from pit dewatering bores and in-pit water. Potable water is sourced from boreholes in the coastal limestone. For Porgera Mine, the main water supply of the mine is the Waile Creek Dam, located approximately 7 kilometres from the mine. The reservoir has a capacity of approximately 717, 000 m3 of water. Water for the grinding circuit is also extracted from Kogai Creek, which is located adjacent to the grinding circuit. The mine operates four water treatment plants for potable water and five sewage treatment plants. ENERGY SUPPLY: For Misima Mine, electricity is produced by the mine on site or with own power generators, from diesel and heavy fuel oil. For Porgera Mine, electricity is produced by the mine on site. Assumed with Mobius / Wohlwill electrolysis. Porgera's principal source of power is supplied by a 73-kilometre transmission line from the gas fired and PJV-owned Hides Power Station. The station has a total output of 62 megawatts (“MW”). A back up diesel power station is located at the mine and has an output of 13MW. The average power requirement of the mine is about 60 MW. For both Misima and Porgera Mines, an 18 MW diesel fired power station supplies electrical power. Diesel was used in the station due to the unavailability of previously supplied heavy fuel oil. technologyComment of gold-silver mine operation with refinery (CA-QC): One of the modelled mine is an open-pit mine and the two others are underground. technologyComment of gold-silver mine operation with refinery (RoW): The mining of ore from open pit mines is considered. technologyComment of primary zinc production from concentrate (RoW): The technological representativeness of this dataset is considered to be high as smelting methods for zinc are consistent in all regions. Refined zinc produced pyro-metallurgically represents less than 5% of global zinc production and less than 2% of this dataset. Electrometallurgical Smelting The main unit processes for electrometallurgical zinc smelting are roasting, leaching, purification, electrolysis, and melting. In both electrometallurgical and pyro-metallurgical zinc production routes, the first step is to remove the sulfur from the concentrate. Roasting or sintering achieves this. The concentrate is heated in a furnace with operating temperature above 900 °C (exothermic, autogenous process) to convert the zinc sulfide to calcine (zinc oxide). Simultaneously, sulfur reacts with oxygen to produce sulfur dioxide, which is subsequently converted to sulfuric acid in acid plants, usually located with zinc-smelting facilities. During the leaching process, the calcine is dissolved in dilute sulfuric acid solution (re-circulated back from the electrolysis cells) to produce aqueous zinc sulfate solution. The iron impurities dissolve as well and are precipitated out as jarosite or goethite in the presence of calcine and possibly ammonia. Jarosite and goethite are usually disposed of in tailing ponds. Adding zinc dust to the zinc sulfate solution facilitates purification. The purification of leachate leads to precipitation of cadmium, copper, and cobalt as metals. In electrolysis, the purified solution is electrolyzed between lead alloy anodes and aluminum cathodes. The high-purity zinc deposited on aluminum cathodes is stripped off, dried, melted, and cast into SHG zinc ingots (99.99 % zinc). Pyro-metallurgical Smelting The pyro-metallurgical smelting process is based on the reduction of zinc and lead oxides into metal with carbon in an imperial smelting furnace. The sinter, along with pre-heated coke, is charged from the top of the furnace and injected from below with pre-heated air. This ensures that temperature in the center of the furnace remains in the range of 1000-1500 °C. The coke is converted to carbon monoxide, and zinc and lead oxides are reduced to metallic zinc and lead. The liquid lead bullion is collected at the bottom of the furnace along with other metal impurities (copper, silver, and gold). Zinc in vapor form is collected from the top of the furnace along with other gases. Zinc vapor is then condensed into liquid zinc. The lead and cadmium impurities in zinc bullion are removed through a distillation process. The imperial smelting process is an energy-intensive process and produces zinc of lower purity than the electrometallurgical process. technologyComment of processing of anode slime from electrorefining of copper, anode (GLO): Based on typical current technology. Anode slime treatment by pressure leaching and top blown rotary converter. Production of Silver by Möbius Electrolysis, Gold by Wohlwill electrolysis, copper telluride cement and crude selenium to further processing. technologyComment of silver-gold mine operation with refinery (CL): OPEN PIT MINING: The ore is mined in four steps: drilling, blasting, loading and hauling. In the case of a surface mine, a pattern of holes is drilled in the pit and filled with explosives. The explosives are detonated in order to break up the ground so large shovels or front-end loaders can load it into haul trucks. BENEFICIATION: The processing plant consists of primary crushing, a pre-crushing circuit, (semi autogenous ball mill crushing) grinding, leaching, filtering and washing, Merrill-Crowe plant and doré refinery. The Merrill-Crowe metal recovery circuit is better than a carbon-in-pulp system for the high-grade silver material. Tailings are filtered to recover excess water as well as residual cyanide and metals. A dry tailings disposal system was preferred to a conventional wet tailings impoundment because of site-specific environmental considerations. technologyComment of silver-gold mine operation with refinery (RoW): Refinement is estimated with electrolysis-data. technologyComment of treatment of crust from Parkes process for lead production (GLO): Processing of Parkes desilvering crust by hot pressing, dezincing (vacuum distillation), cupellation of lead and moebius electrolysis (electrowinning) technologyComment of treatment of precious metal from electronics scrap, in anode slime, precious metal extraction (SE, RoW): Anode slime treatment by pressure leaching and top blown rotary converter. Production of Silver by Möbius Electrolysis, Gold by Wohlwill electrolysis, Palladium to further processing technologyComment of treatment of waste x-ray film (GLO): None
Types:
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Comment: This is a market activity. Each market represents the consumption mix of a product in a given geography, connecting suppliers with consumers of the same product in the same geographical area. Markets group the producers and also the imports of the product (if relevant) within the same geographical area. They also account for transport to the consumer and for the losses during that process, when relevant. This is the market for 'silver', in the Global geography. Transport from producers to consumers of this product in the geography covered by the market is included. This market is supplied by the following activities with the given share: treatment of crust from Parkes process for lead production, GLO: 0.0592613713353176 treatment of precious metal from electronics scrap, in anode slime, precious metal extraction, SE: 4.33433698284942e-05 gold mine operation and refining, SE: 0.00691157397809981 gold-silver mine operation with refinery, CA-QC: 0.000420305813916825 gold-silver mine operation with refinery, PG: 0.000837203519862256 processing of anode slime from electrorefining of copper, anode, GLO: 0.0900940072589024 silver-gold mine operation with refinery, CL: 0.00390198329779869 treatment of precious metal from electronics scrap, in anode slime, precious metal extraction, RoW: 0.0163516721112372 gold-silver mine operation with refinery, RoW: 0.00396421732885982 primary zinc production from concentrate, RoW: 0.0572052587068733 silver-gold mine operation with refinery, RoW: 0.752028927432513 treatment of waste x-ray film, GLO: 0.00898013584679099 generalComment of gold mine operation and refining (SE): This dataset was created by merging two separate multi-output datasets from ecoinvent database v2; "mining, gold-silver-zinc-lead-copper deposit" and "refining, copper-zinc-lead-gold-silver, in smelter". This dataset describes the joint production of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. Both mining and refining are included in this activity. The data on mining corresponds to Swedish mines Aitik, Boliden and Garpenberg, which produce gold, silver and other metals. Data quality for emissions into air / water, as well as disposal of tailings, is low. Regarding the refining; gold and silver are supposed to be treated in the PGM plant in Rönnskär, whereas the other metals are supposed to undergo other treatments. A high share of the production is recycled metal, e.g. 74% for gold. generalComment of gold-silver mine operation with refinery (PG): This dataset describes the joint production of 23570 kg of gold and 24000 kg of silver, at refinery. Data was taken from the environmental report of Placer Dome Inc. and Barrick for the Misima Mine and the Porgera Mine, respectively - both open pit mines -. Data for reference flows, by products and most exchanges was calculated by adding the corresponding inputs or outputs of each mine. For the Misima Mine data from 2000 is used, when the Misima Mine was still producing. For the Porgera Mine data from 2006 is used where available, the consumption of some material requirements is scaled with the weight of processed gold and data from the year 2002. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.] generalComment of gold-silver mine operation with refinery (CA-QC): This dataset describes the production of gold and silver in Quebec (Canada) in 2012. This includes the operations at the mining site located in Quebec, i.e. mining, benefication and a first refining, which leads to the production of doré bars, containing gold, silver and impurities. Specific data were collected from 3 mines that produced doré bars in Quebec. These mines represent about 98% of Quebec gold production and about 95% of Quebec silver production from combined gold-silver mines. Share is estimated as the production statistics for 2012-2013 are not published yet and considers gold-silver mines only (not gold and silver coming from other mines). One mine is an open-pit mine and the two others are underground. A weighted average of 839 tonnes of ore is extracted per kg of gold produce. The recovery rate of gold is known for two of the mines (89% and 91%) and the recovery rate of silver known for only one mine (76%). Note that the mine infrastructure are extrapolated from gold-silver mine operation with refinery, GLO dataset, where the modelled mines are open pit. This is not representative of the Quebec situation where two of the three modelled mine are underground. Thus a mine infrastrucuture, gold and silver, Québec will eventually be created in order to reflect the Québec specificity. In order to create a dataset with gold and silver as outputs (to comply with the boundaries of the GLO dataset), a very simplified modeling of the refining of the doré bars to produce gold and silver has been added to this dataset although it is done in Ontario (Canada) : electricity use is extrapolated from gold-silver mine operation with refinery, PE and PG datasets and infrastructure extrapolated from gold-silver mine operation with refinery, GLO dataset. It is assume that the refining efficency is 100% (i.e. no loss of gold). generalComment of gold-silver mine operation with refinery (RoW): This multi-output process "mining and refining, gold-silver deposit" delivers the two co-products "gold, from combined gold-silver-production, at refinery" and "silver, from combined gold-silver-production, at refinery". This data set includes the mining in Peru in open pit mines incl. land use. Air emissions are estimated. As mentionned in the Geography Comment, some exchanges relate to Quebec dataset. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.] generalComment of primary zinc production from concentrate (RoW): The multi-output "primary zinc production from concentrate" process includes all steps required to produce special high grade zinc from zinc concentrate using the electrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical (less common) processes. Electrometallurgical zinc smelting includes roasting, leaching, purification, electrolysis, melting, and sulfur dioxide gas treatment. Pyrometallurgical zinc smelting includes sintering, leaching, refining, and sulfur dioxide gas treatment. The dataset describes the production of zinc and additional co-products, primarily sulfuric acid. Data is based on a study undertaken by the International Zinc Association (IZA) in conjunction with thinkstep (the LCA practitioner) for reference year 2012. Participating companies provided annual primary data on inputs and outputs for each process step, which was aggregated into a single production-weighted dataset. The below images present the system boundary in relation to the primary product, special high grade zinc. imageUrlTagReplacec1fef210-e0fd-48fd-9cea-351f6a190ca8 imageUrlTagReplace27d4da96-9dfb-45d5-ac34-9f40810abac8 generalComment of processing of anode slime from electrorefining of copper, anode (GLO): For the processing of anode slimes from primary copper electrorefining globally. Background: Metals are produced as part of a complex, highly interconnected and interdependent system, with many desirable but scarce/critical metals recovered as by-products during the production of one or more ‘host’ metal(s). Copper is one of the world’s major mineral commodities and is mined from heterogeneous sulfide or oxide mineral deposits in countries worldwide. Copper sulfide deposits, such as those of the porphyry or massive sulphide type, contain numerous other valuable minerals, which are desirable to society. Copper is mined & beneficiated to produce a copper sulfide concentrate, as well as other by-product concentrates (e.g. molybdenite), which are sold to smelters. Copper sulfide concentrates are smelted to produce the intermediate product, copper anode. This is then sold to refineries, where it is electrorefined to produce copper cathode, which is sold to fabricators. The by-product of copper electrorefining is anode slime, which contains various important by-product metals (principally gold, silver, selenium & tellurium) and is sold to precious metal recovery plants for further processing to recover the valuable metals. Modelling approach: Amounts of exchanges to the environment and from the technosphere were taken from the treatment activity, “treatment of precious metal from electronics scrap, in anode slime, precious metal extraction”, which was used here as a proxy for the treatment of anode slime from primary copper production via pyrometallurgy. The amounts of by products from the process were calculated through a global material flow analysis of primary copper production. Further information is provided in the accompanying documentation (see Turner & Hischier, 2019). Electrical energy demand was based on Chatterjee et al. (1996). References Chatterjee, B. (1996). Electrowinning of gold from anode slimes. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 45, 27-32. Turner, D. A. & Hischier, R. (2019). Regionalised life cycle inventories of primary copper production (pyrometallurgy) and anode slime processing. Empa, St. Gallen, Switzerland. generalComment of silver-gold mine operation with refinery (CL): This dataset describes the joint production of 112000 kg of silver and 2990 kg of gold. Data was taken from the environmental report of Placer Dome Inc. for La Coipa Mine, an open pit one. Since the mine has been sold in 2006 to Kinross Gold Corporation and Goldcorp Inc., no more recent data is available. Also, both enterprises do not publish their environmental data. Therefore, the older data from 2002 is used to model the gold- and silver production in Chile. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.] generalComment of silver-gold mine operation with refinery (RoW): This multi-output process 'mining and refining, gold-silver deposit' delivers the two co-products 'gold, from combined gold-silver-production, at refinery' and 'silver, from combined gold-silver-production, at refinery'. This data set includes the mining in Chile in open pit mine incl. land use. Air emissions are estimated. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.] generalComment of treatment of crust from Parkes process for lead production (GLO): Production of refined silver (99.9%) from Parkes crust from lead desilvering. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.] generalComment of treatment of precious metal from electronics scrap, in anode slime, precious metal extraction (SE, RoW): The multi-output-process "precious metal refining, secondary copper" delivers the co-products "silver, secondary, at precious metal refinery", "gold, secondary, at precious metal refinery" and "palladium, secondary, at precious metal refinery". The flows "silver, …" and "gold, …" are part of the global supply mix of gold and silver modelled in this part. The by-product "palladium, …" receives its part of the burdens, but it is not aimed to be used by the data-user. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.] generalComment of treatment of waste x-ray film (GLO): This dataset represents treatment of spent x-ray film for silver recovery. These films have a valuable silver content. Silver recovery from x-ray film represents 75% of all silver produced from scrap in the global market. [This dataset was already contained in the ecoinvent database version 2. It was not individually updated during the transfer to ecoinvent version 3. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results may still have changed, as they are affected by changes in the supply chain, i.e. in other datasets. This dataset was generated following the ecoinvent quality guidelines for version 2. It may have been subject to central changes described in the ecoinvent version 3 change report (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/ecoinvent-version-3/reports-of-changes/), and the results of the central updates were reviewed extensively. The changes added e.g. consistent water flows and other information throughout the database. The documentation of this dataset can be found in the ecoinvent reports of version 2, which are still available via the ecoinvent website. The change report linked above covers all central changes that were made during the conversion process.]
Origin: /Bund/UBA/ProBas
Tags: Zementherstellung ? Aluminiumoxid ? Dieselkraftstoff ? Sinterung ? Zinksulfat ? Zinksulfid ? Elektrische Leistung ? Aluminium ? Ammoniak ? Bach ? Bleioxid ? Kobalt ? Silber ? Tellurid ? Wehr ? Zinkoxid ? Eisen ? Kupfer ? Gold ? Abfallbehandlung ? Main ? Kläranlage ? Kohlenstoff ? Koks ? Metalloxid ? Raffination ? Pflanzensamen ? Sauerstoff ? Schwefelsäure ? Selen ? Zellstoff ? Zink ? Brüden ? Cadmium ? Staub ? Blei ? Schwefel ? Talsperre ? Elektrizität ? Tankbehälter ? Elektrolyse ? Raffinerie ? Betriebswasser ? Energieversorgung ? Lastkraftfahrzeug ? Schimmel ? Metall ? Schwefeldioxid ? Kohlenmonoxid ? Cyanid ? Erzbergbau ? Damm ? Sickerwasser ? Kalkstein ? Gasförmiger Stoff ? Abfalltransport ? Tagebau ? Wasseraufbereitungsanlage ? Goldbergbau ? Schweröl ? Linienquelle ? Explosivstoff ? Lauge ? Schmelzofen ? Energie ? Mühle ? Kraftwerk ? Aufbereitungsanlage ? Oxidation ? Erz ? Wasser ? Stahl ? Destillation ? Reinigungsverfahren ? Höhle ? Trinkwasser ? Wasserspeicher ? Wasserversorgung ? Energiebedarf ? Erzverhüttung ? Niederschlag ? Ofen ? Legierung ? Transmission ? Bohrung ? Mining of other non-ferrous metal ores ? Mining of non-ferrous metal ores ? Mining of metal ores ? Mining and quarrying ?
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