World of Metallurgy ERZMETALL 68 2015 No 3 137 Markus A Reuter et al Lead Zinc and their Minor Elements Enablers of a Circular Economy Conclusion 1 It is our conjecture that the big seven metals and in particular lead and zinc are a key to a Sustainable Society These enable the Circular Economy through their use supply of minor elements that are used in sustainabil ity enabling products and are also key elements to help close the loop in recycling due to their metallurgical infra structure The WoM in a product centric integrated metals processing SIMP system shows the true enabling proper ties of these metals and their value in a Circular Economy 2 Lead zinc and technology elements WoM 7 8 This section gives a brief overview of some production and application data for lead zinc as well as technology elements The availability of a critical infrastructure is re quired to enable a circular economy as depicted by Fig ure 2 with particular reference to lead and zinc suggesting their importance to enable an Internet of Things IoT In addition product centric thinking 2 is promoted to show the importance of lead and zinc as suppliers of the critical minor elements that are so important for sustainability enabling products Figure 3 shows the many elements that may be present in these sustainability enabling products supplied from primary resources This would suggest the importance of harmonizing primary and secondary pro duction of lead zinc and their minor elements lying at the heart of a Circular Economy see Figure 1 2 1 Some facts on lead It is clear from Figure 4 that the production of lead from sec ondary materials dominates especially as the primary use of lead is in batteries which has a very well organized recycling system with a very high recycling rate in fact the highest of all metals Secondary production has also increased to meet the rising demand which is more than likely due to an increase in passenger vehicle production for China s boom ing economy It is interesting to note the relative increase between 2008 and 2012 in that primary production increased proportionally more than recycling pointing to an increased in use application as indicated by lead usage Fig 3 Various geological and designed minerals and possible technology elements originating from lead and zinc harmonizing and defin ing data in products in a minerals format will help a lot to optimize lead and zinc production systems Figure 3 Reuter Chalcopyrite Chalcocite Bornite Wur ite Sphalerite Galena Energy Efficient Lighting Os Ru Pd IrCd z MnCo AuPt Ga Ge AgIn TeSe Ru Bi Sb Rh CuZn Sn Pb NiMo l hi A i l i i l f b C ffi i Li h iMa ac te zur te E ements n M nera s o P Zn u Energy E c ent g t ng From minerals they are called minor These elements enable Some called technology elements functionality of products Some labeled critical Fig 4 The applications of lead left and lead production and recycling statistics right 10 11 Figure 4a Reuter Figur 4b Reuter

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