ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on several metals, starting with an overview and then turning to specific studies of steel, aluminium, copper, lead, and gold. It explores a fuel mineral and an industrial mineral. The distribution of steel demand between the industrial and transition countries shows less disparity than in the case of the non-ferrous metals, reflecting the fact that steel is a basic industrial raw material that is essential even in the least developed countries. Recycling has an important role to play in the transitions towards sustainable development. The aluminium industry is working with automobile manufacturers to enable easier dismantling of aluminium components from cars in order to improve the sorting and recovery of aluminium. The appetite for steel in China has been driven by sustained investment in construction and infrastructure over the past decade. The economics of recycling is mentioned in many of the metals case studies.
