Global trends and environmental issues in nickel mining: sulfides versus laterites

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors overview the Proterozoic Large Igneous Provinces of the Amazonian Craton, characterized by large volumes of extrusive and intrusive magmatic rocks, and reassess the geologic, geochronologic and geochemical information to stablish three intracontinental felsic volcanic-plutonic igneous belts.

TL;DR: Researchers developed a hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent to selectively leach nickel, cobalt, and manganese from low-grade nickel laterite ores, achieving high recovery rates and reusability of the solvent for at least four cycles.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the maximum energy consumption required to obtain gold at the final ore grade, i.e., when all mineral deposits were completely exhausted until reaching crustal concentration, and then assess the mineral capital and its degradation velocity from a thermodynamic point of view.

TL;DR: In this paper, a triple green approach using microwave irradiation (250 °C, 200 W, <10 min) for the accelerated de-polymerization of polystyrene and valorization of nickel-contaminated biomass to yield valuable chemical building blocks is presented.

Abstract: The Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report describes progress in understanding of the human and natural drivers of climate change1, observed climate change, climate processes and attribution, and estimates of projected future climate change. It builds upon past IPCC assessments and incorporates new findings from the past six years of research. Scientific progress since the TAR is based upon large amounts of new and more comprehensive data, more sophisticated analyses of data, improvements in understanding of processes and their simulation in models, and more extensive exploration of uncertainty ranges.

TL;DR: New metabolic and mechanistic data are used to suggest a basis for the failure of "classical" risk assessment methods to provide accurate predictions for humans in this instance.

TL;DR: A tentative monetary value is put on Hg polluted food sources in the Arctic, where local, significant pollution sources are limited, and this to costs for strategies avoiding Hg pollution and to remediation costs of contaminated sites in Sweden and Japan.