The 2023 combined meeting of the ACerS Structural Clay Products Division, ACerS Southwest Section, and Clemson University’s National Brick Research Center took place in Austin, Texas, June 5–7. More than 100 attendees came to enjoy the networking, technical presentations, and plant tours.
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With the rapid growth of the global mining sector, it is crucial that miners adopt improved regulations and lower-impact methods to reduce the sector’s environmental and social footprint. Ceramics play an important role in environmental remediation, and today’s CTT highlights two studies that use ceramics to treat acid mine drainage.
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The International Seabed Authority is running up against a July 9 deadline to finish developing a code for deep-sea mining. The possibility of mineral exploitation taking place without regulations has marine scientists concerned because so much is still unknown about the environmental effects of this practice.
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Verifying the purity of ultrahigh-purity materials can be a challenge. Researchers in Italy and Norway developed a new analytical protocol based on laser ablation paired with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to determine the purity of silicon carbide.
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Starting materials can often be derived from different sources, but the impact that material source has on a product’s properties is generally less studied than other factors, such as synthesis technique. Researchers from Wuhan University of Technology explored the effect of different magnesium sources on the production of magnesium aluminate spinel.
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In January 2023, Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB announced that it had identified more than 1 million tonnes of rare earth oxides near the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. Though mining this deposit may reduce reliance on China for rare earths, the impacts of a new mine on Kiruna residents and the indigenous Sámi people cannot be overlooked.
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The March 2023 issue of the ACerS Bulletin—featuring sustainability in industry—is now available online. Plus—upcoming Bulletin digital evolution.
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Carbon nano-onions are a newer carbon nanostructure with great potential in application, but synthesizing these materials conventionally requires high temperatures, expensive feedstock, or corrosive environments. Researchers at Nagoya Institute of Technology used a one-step microwave pyrolysis process to turn fish scales into carbon nano-onions with highly crystalline and functionalized structures.
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On Sept. 7, 2022, Canadian mining startup The Metals Company announced the International Seabed Authority greenlit their plan to conduct an industrial seafloor mining trial to extract polymetallic nodules. While marine scientists are concerned about the environmental effects of deep-sea mining in general, an investigative report by The New York Times questions the choice of The Metals Company to conduct this trial.
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The August 2022 issue of the ACerS Bulletin—featuring formation of first glass in the universe—is now available online. Plus—USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries and refractory raw materials and sustainability.
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