It is generally accepted that direct emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants are some of the most important parameters for defining sustainability of industrial processes 3.

There have been different attempts to investigate the parameters of importance to define sustainability of industrial operations. The balance between the economic benefits and environmental impacts is one of the ways by which industrial sustainability can be assessed. However, production and refining of metals are some of the most energy intensive and highly environmentally challenging industrial activities 1, emitting greenhouse gases, particles, trace metals, acidic gases and organic pollutants to the environment 2. Production of metals has significant input to global economies with their wide and diverse applications in everyday life. Improvement of sustainability of the production of lead would require further control of trace metal emissions, while for aluminium and nickel production, improved control of emissions of particles and the acidic gases SO 2 and NO x. For instance, adoption of renewable energy sources would significantly decrease the greenhouse gas emissions and the associated environmental impacts of the copper, zinc, gold, and iron and steel production industries. The work further revealed the specific emissions for better control for each industry taking into consideration their relative environmental and economic impacts. The results indicate that lead, followed by aluminium and nickel production had the largest environmental impacts. ReCiPe midpoint and endpoint hierarchist impact assessment methods were used to investigate the environmental impacts of the selected industries. The emissions of selected representative industries in Australia were sourced from public national emission inventories and used as input parameters in the openLCA software. This work provides environmental impact assessment of the production of aluminium, copper, gold, iron and steel, lead, nickel and zinc, and considers their contribution to the economy. The balance between the economic inputs and environmental footprint of the metal production industries determines their contribution to sustainability. Metal production industries are associated with positive economic benefits, however their activities are significantly resource and energy intensive, contributing to emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases to the environment.

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