Eco-efficiency challenges in the industrial minerals sector

From 11–13 September, leading industry and political representatives met in Brussels for the IMA Europe 2008 Conference. Keynote this year was ensuring sustainability in the extraction and processing of industrial minerals. Indispensable in everyday life while fulfilling a key function in the development of sustainable concepts for tomorrow’s world, industrial minerals play a central role.

Highlight of the conference was the signing of the “Countdown 2010 Declaration” by IMA Europe President Claude Stenneler in the presence of Sebastian Winkler (Fig. 1), head of the European ­regional office of the IUCN (International Union for Conser­vation of Nature). With this declaration, IMA Europe is adopting the preservation of biodiversity as a new goal in the Association’s agenda.

Prior to the ceremonial signing of the declaration, the actual conference was held with seven papers on the topic of sustainability. Phil Goodwin from WBB Minerals, Great Britain kicked off. In his paper he described how his company had combined dedicated carbon management and improved efficiency to save more than 24 000 t CO2. He was followed by Thierry Salmona, CTO at Imerys. He presented the strategy of the world market leader in industrial minerals in the development of new environmentally friendly products and processing methods as well as the use of environmentally friendly produced base materials for increasing sustainability on a global scale. With sales of 3.4 billion t, the company has been able to up productivity by 3.4  % and at the same time lower CO2 consumption by 5  %. He also described the involvement of his company in an eco-town project in Cornwall, which is also being promoted by the British royal family. Philippe Osset from Pricewater­houseCoopers addressed the topic of lifecycle analysis (LCA) in his talk. Precondition for such an analysis was, as he explained, the identification of crucial product states. In a second step, potential for optimization had to be evaluated, for instance in production, logistics or recyclability. In this connection he referred to compliance with the ISO 14062 standard in respect of sustainable product design. Further he explained how the financial sector always had to be taken into account in lifecycle analyses and presented the already developed analysis model “Life Circle Costing LCC”. A short break was followed by a paper presented by Werner Bosmans, who works in the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Environment. He outlined the current aims of the European Commission for the sustained use of natural resources, which are summarized in the paper entitled “Resource Strategy”. In this connection he presented the “European Commission’s Raw Materials Initiative” as well as the “International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management”. Abraão Carvalho, Departmental Head in the Directorate General for Enterprise & Industry in the ­European Commission, underlined in his paper the key function of natural resources particularly in sustainable growth, as their use permeated the entire value added chain of the global economy. He also explained the Commission’s Raw Materials Initiative, which focussed on non-energy-intensive raw materials, which are used particularly by industry as starting materials for building materials and industrial minerals. In this context, he referred to the international dimension of the raw materials issue, which had been the subject of a special resolution at the G8 summit meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, last year and which ultimately forms the basis for the current raw materials initiative. With Didier Herbert, another Departmental Head of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise & Industry took the floor. His observations chiefly concerned sustainable consumption and a sustainable industrial policy. He referred to the goal declared by the International Panel on ­Climate Change to save 30  % of the energy needed in buildings by the year 2030 – and that solely with measures for optimization of the supply network. As the core element of this plan of action he described a dynamic framework that defines the key data and forms the basis for the classification of products by their sustainability and energy demand, and for assessment by the consumer. The papers were followed by a round table discussion (Fig. 2).

After the declaration on biodiversity a gala dinner was held with the ceremonial presentation of the IMA Award. Honoured this year was the Rhineland Regional Council (LVR) for a series of films on mining and industrial minerals in the Rhineland. The series of documentaries aims to increase awareness of the sustainable extraction and processing of mineral resources in a close-to-home context and was supported with funds from the German Ministry of Education.

The Conference closed on the morning of the second day with the private plenary meeting of the IMA Europe, chaired by the new IMA-Europe President, Mr Thierry Salmona, who was elected by the General Assembly for a two-year mandate.

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