The circular economy set to transform the mining industry, says panel at the Global Mining Symposium

In the future, mining companies will need to develop new business models that account for the increasing re-use and recycling of metals and minerals as the world moves towards a “circular economy.”

That was the key takeaway from a panel discussion on the circular economy at this week’s Global Mining Symposium. Moderated by Anthony Vaccaro, group publisher at The Northern Miner, the panel included Andrew Cheatle, non-executive director, Condor Gold (TSX: COG; LSE: CNR) and director, Troilus Gold (TSX: TLG; US-OTC; SKREF), and Elizabeth Freele, founder and CEO of 4P Solutions, a risk management and sustainability consulting firm based in Vancouver.

“Compared to the linear model, which is based on a take-make-waste economy and is the way that we’ve been living and using resources in recent modern memory,” Freele said. “The circular economy offers a sustainable alternative to the status quo and is predicated on providing for human needs within the natural constraints of finite resources.”

The circular economy, she explained, looks beyond resources as just being consumed and where their value is destroyed after a single use but embraces the principles of reprocessing, repurposing, and designing out waste and pollution.

The goal of the circular economy is to improve the productivity of these finite resources by allowing materials to function at their highest potential for as long as possible while also regenerating the natural systems we rely upon, Freele said.

“You can think of it as applying the waste hierarchy that you learned about in school, which is to reduce, reuse, and recycle before considering disposal,” she said.

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