SUstainable MInerals for a resilient Transition to Net Zero (SUMIT 0)

越来越明显的是，净零过渡将是资源密集型的。例如，每兆瓦装机容量(电力供应约1000户)，一个陆上风力涡轮机使用3吨(吨)铜(铜)，0.75吨锰(锰)，0.5吨铬(铬)和镍(镍)，0.1吨钼(Mo)和较少量的稀土元素(~15公斤)。太阳能光伏(PV)设备对铜的要求类似，但海上风力涡轮机使用的铜(x2.5)和稀土(X10)明显更多。随着规模的扩大，约140公吨的关键金属将被可再生能源(风能/太阳能/地热)技术和未来1.5摄氏度气候变化所需的能量存储设备所利用。因此，人们对关键元素供应的安全日益感到关切。2022年，英国政府发布了首个关键矿产战略，并将在2023年底之前审查关键矿产供应链的稳定性和安全性。我们现在在保护我们的土壤和水，甚至保护人类健康方面面临的挑战，得到的考虑要少得多。在已经缺水的地区，矿物资源的开采不仅是水密集型的，而且不可避免地会产生废物。过去/现在的做法已经产生了280亿吨(GT)-这相当于一个6公里高的立方体！这些通常是不受限制的，并被风和水扩散，导致污染扩散和邻近人口的大规模暴露。受污染的粉尘和水含有多种潜在有毒元素，如砷(As)、铅(Pb)、镍(Ni)、硼(B)、钼(Mo)，这些元素在开采的材料中自然共存。就个人而言，有充分记录的对人类健康的影响，例如，众所周知会导致各种癌症，铅已知会影响大脑发育，特别是对儿童，但暴露在复杂的PTE混合物中的累积效果尚不清楚。这项提议的重点是铜(铜)开采，因为(1)所有低碳技术都需要铜；(2)铜是钼、Re、Te、稀土等关键金属共生的通道；(3)铜矿开采废物几乎占所有尾矿废物的一半；(4)这些废物含有我们需要研究的复杂的PTE混合物。智利是迄今为止世界上最大的铜生产国，它还拥有740多个注册尾矿区，其中许多尾矿区管理不善，正在影响土壤、水、粮食和人类健康，特别是土著社区的健康。因此，我们提议在智利可持续矿产研究所-国际英才中心(SMI-ICE-智利)和爱丁堡大学(UOE)之间建立新的国际合作伙伴关系，将SMI-ICE-智利在智利和南美采矿业研究、创新和技术/能力转让方面的卓越表现与爱丁堡世界级的研究设施和我们的互补专业知识结合在一起。利用SMI-ICE-智利积极的项目，我们将使用一种新颖的、采取全面和综合的办法，以解决在对PTE混合物的认识方面存在的重大差距，这将是评估生态和人类健康风险以及今后可持续废物处理和关键金属回收工作的基础。通过与国际环境研究所(IIES)的合作，我们将增强我们伙伴关系的长期可持续性，并为更广泛的国际合作和资金开辟潜在的途径。特别是，我们的目标是促进英国-智利-加拿大-澳大利亚关系的讨论，这对确保未来关键矿物的环境可持续供应至关重要。通过利用我们取得科学进步并产生积极社会经济影响的经验，我们还将确保有文化意识地为土著社区提供更好的生活质量。

It is increasingly evident that a net zero transition will be resource intensive. For example, per megawatt (MW) of installed capacity (electricity supply ~1000 homes), a single onshore wind turbine uses 3 tonnes (t) of copper (Cu), 0.75 t of manganese (Mn), 0.5 t of chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni), 0.1 t of molybdenum (Mo) and smaller amounts of rare earth elements (REEs) (~15 kg). Solar photovoltaic (PV) devices have similar Cu requirements but offshore wind turbines use significantly more Cu (x2.5) and REEs (x10). Scaling up, ~140 Mt of critical metals will be utilised by renewable energy (wind/solar/geothermal) technologies and the energy storage devices required for a <1.5 degreeC climate change future. Thus there is growing concern about security of supply of critical elements. In 2022, the UK government published its first Critical Minerals Strategy and will review the stability and security of critical mineral supply chains by the end of 2023. There has been much less consideration of the challenges we now face in protecting our soils and waters and indeed human health. Extraction of mineral resources is not only water intensive in areas that are already water-stressed but it inevitably generates waste materials. Past/current practices have already produced >280 gigatonnes (Gt) - this equates to a cube that is 6 km high! These are often uncurtailed and dispersal by wind and water results in contamination spread and expansive exposure for proximal populations. The contaminated dusts and waters contain a wide range of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), e.g. arsenic (As), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo) which naturally co-occur within the mined materials. Individually, there are well-documented impacts upon human health, e.g. As is known to cause various cancers, Pb is known to affect brain development especially in children, but the cumulative effective of exposures to complex PTE mixtures is unknown. The focus of this proposal is on copper (Cu) mining because (i) Cu is required across all low-carbon technologies; (ii) it is the gateway to co-occurring critical metals such as Mo, Re, Te, REEs; (iii) Cu mining wastes constitute almost half of all tailing wastes; (iv) these wastes contain the complex PTE mixtures that we need to study. Chile is by far the largest producer of Cu in the world and it also has more than 740 registered tailings areas, many of which are improperly managed and are impacting soil, water, food and human health, especially of indigenous communities. We therefore propose a new international partnership between the Sustainable Minerals Institute-International Centre of Excellence-Chile (SMI-ICE-Chile) and the University of Edinburgh (UoE) to bring together SMI-ICE-Chile's excellence in research, innovation and technological/capacity transfer in the mining industry of Chile and South America and Edinburgh's world-class research facilities and our complementary expertise.Taking advantage of SMI-ICE-Chile's active projects, we will use a novel, holistic and integrated approach to address a key gap in understanding regarding PTE mixtures that will underpin assessments for ecological and human health risk as well as future work on sustainable waste treatment and critical metal recovery. By jointly engaging with the International Institute for Environmental Studies (IIES), we will enhance the long-term sustainability of our partnership and open up potential avenues for wider international collaboration and funding. In particular, we aim to facilitate discussions across the UK-Chile-Canada-Australia nexus which will be paramount to securing an environmentally sustainable supply of critical minerals in the future. By building on our experience of delivering scientific progress that also has positive socio-economic impact, we will also ensure a culturally aware provision of a better quality of life for indigenous communities.