• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.291-307
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• 2018

Australia is the world's top gold, nickel, iron ore, lead, zinc and uranium, and is ranked in the top five in many other important minerals. Extension to existing resources will continue to support well-established local production. There are perceptions by some that Australia is a mature exploration destination where the easily won near-surface deposits were largely discovered many decades ago. In recent years, Australia faces increasing global competition for investment spending in all jurisdictions in which mineral exploration is encouraged. Many regional communities face the threat of losing their main economic driver as a number of long-term mines are reaching the end of their economic life. However, given the trend of increasing mineral demand due to the 4th industrial revolution, it is considered that Korea is also an opportunity to acquire global competitiveness of geoscience and mining technology by smart and digital mining, and by ICT-convergence technology R&D.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.72-81
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• 2009

The demand for platinum group metals for various advanced industries has been growing due to their excellent physical and chemical properties. Since the deposit of platinum minerals are restricted to few countries, their recovery from various secondary resources has becomes an important issue to related industries for keeping the supply reliably. In this paper, patents on the metallurgical technologies for the platinum group metals were analyzed. The search of patent was limited to the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EP), Japan (IP), and Korea (KR) from 1986 to 2006. Patents were surveyed using key-words searching and selected by filtering criteria. The trend of patents was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.469-476
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• 2013

With the advent of a new Korean government, a new national agenda (140 items) was reported. Additionally, Work Plans of the executive bodies were also released, including the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP); the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE); the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF); and the Ministry of Environment (MOE); the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT). For government-supported research institutes, it will be important to watch and analyze the changes in the government's primary policies and strategic goals. In this paper, we analyzed new governmental research and development (R&D) policy with respect to geoscience and mineral resources technology. The results indicated that the executive bodies emphasized, for the job creating 'creative economy' and the 'safety and integration society', the establishment of the creative economy; science and technology development based on creativity and innovation; creation of new growth engines by fusion and diffusion; construction of stable energy systems; promotion of environmental industry; and creating satisfactory land services. In the area of geoscience and mineral resources technology, it is time to search for a new, creative, and interagency fusion R&D contents to meet the needs of the public and boost its national competitiveness.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.15-27
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• 2020

Microplastics are recognized as critical and serious environmental problem in worldwide. Plastics are inexpensive, lightweight, excellent in processability, and various in material-specific properties. Along industrial development, the production and disposal amount of plastics are also rapidly increasing. In particular, abundant plastic wastes are eventually disposed into marine environment with harmful impacts on the ecosystem. Therefore, lots of relevant studies were recently progressed in various fields. However, many studies are being just conducted due to its difficulty in applying a general treatment method for those small particle sizes and their various characteristics. In the meantime, lots of researches are being conducted on applying methods using physical properties such as specific gravity, magnetic, and electrostatic separation, which are beneficiation processes of minerals. However, since it is still in the laboratory stage, the development of larger scale separation technology for efficient treatment is urgent.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.31-37
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• 2015

Ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) which is by-product of steel industry has been recycled as a cement admixture though the other steel slags are used as aggregates. In this study, the electric arc furnace slag (EAFS) was used as a cement admixture after the reduction of iron oxide in the slag at the interface of molten slag and water quenching. Consequently, the reformed EAFS (REAFS) had higher grindability than that of granulated blast furnace slag. And in mortar tests, the strength properties of specimens using REAFS were 98% of plain specimens of GGBFS upto 20% replacement ratio of GGBFS with REAFS.

• Proceedings of the KSEEG Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.603-603
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• 2007

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• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.421-429
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• 2015

Base researches in geoscience and mineral resources, such as geological and geo-thematic mapping, geological survey and observation, have long-term, continuity and time-leasing characteristics and they are difficult to present the particular research stages or progressions in the research span. The Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), developed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is effective for presenting research maturity levels and progression in the development of new technologies. This study suggests adjusted definitions for the Technology Readiness Levels to fit Geo-technology (Technology in Geoscience and Mineral Resources). Base geological researches, including mapping, surveys and observation, can be also presented in research levels from TRL 1 (R&D planning, literature survey) to TRL 9 (geological information construction and service in all target areas) in terms of the final product's coverage. Moreover, not only development and construction of commercial products, geological disasters and environmental researches can also be presented in field demonstrations through public pilot applications. The modified commercialization or cemonstration TRLs in Geo-technology are TRL 5 (starting pilot field application), TRL 6 (pilot field operation) and TRL 7 (pilot field operation for a larger scale, greater than ten percent of the actual environment).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2015

We produced magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) and a Mg-rich solution as a nano-adsorbent and a coagulant for water treatment, respectively, using a low-grade iron ore. The ore was leached with aqueous hydrochloric acid and its impurities were removed by solvent extraction of the leachate using tri-n-butyl phosphate as an extractant. The content of Si and Mg, which inhibit the formation of MNPs, was reduced from 10.3 wt% and 15.5 wt% to 28.1 mg/L and < 1.4 mg/L, respectively. Consequently, the Fe content increased from 68.6 wt% to 99.8 wt%. The high-purity $Fe^{3+}$ solution recovered was used to prepare 5-15-nm MNPs by coprecipitation. The wastewater produced contained a large amount of $Mg^{2+}$ and can be used to precipitate struvite in sewage treatment. This process helps reduce the cost of both sewage and iron-orewastewater treatments, as well as in the economic production of the nano-adsorbent.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.40-48
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• 2022

In this study, the effects of solution components were investigated in the recovery of vanadium as ammonium metavanadate from vanadium-ore-salt roasting-water leaching solution. The vanadium-containing solution is strongly alkaline (pH 13), so the pH must be lowered to 9 or less to increase the ammonium metavanadate precipitation efficiency. However, in the process of adjusting the solution pH using sulfuric acid, aluminum ions are co-precipitated, which must be removed first. In this study, aluminum was precipitated in the form of an aluminum-silicate compound using sodium silicate, and the conditions for minimizing vanadium loss in this process were investigated. After aluminum removal, the silicate was precipitated and removed by adjusting the solution pH to 9 or less using sulfuric acid. In this process, the concentration and addition rate of sulfuric acid have a significant influence on the loss of vanadium, and vanadium loss was minimized as much as possible by slowly adding dilute sulfuric acid. Ammonium metavanadate was precipitated using three equivalents of ammonium chloride at room temperature from the aluminum-free, aqueous solution of vanadium following the pH adjustment process. The recovery yield of vanadium in the form of ammonium metavanadate exceeded 81%. After washing the product, vanadium pentoxide with 98.6% purity was obtained following heat treatment at 550 ℃ for 2 hours.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.303-316
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• 2014

This study was carried out to raise research productivity through the analysis on the research projects and to find trends of mineral resources survey and mineral deposits of the KIGAM for 38 years since the fiscal year of 1976 to 2013. The KIGAM in the projects for mineral resources survey and mineral deposits expended 67.41 billion won for last 38 years, which is 107.07 billion won calculated using the present value in 2013 at discount rate of 5%. R&D expenditure in mineral resources survey and mineral deposits of KIGAM increased approximately 59.4 times from 108 million won in 1976 to 6,420 million won in 2013, and about 9.8 times from 657 million won in 1976, as calculated using the present value in 2013. The percentage of research projects in mineral resources survey by research sub-areas was as follows: survey, 32%(90 projects); origin of ore deposits and basic research, 19%(54 projects); exploration for ore deposits, 17%(48 projects); database and information, 13%(37 projects); mineralogy and ore analysis, 9%(25 projects); and etc., 10%(27 projects). Based on analysis of research trends over the last 38 years, to raise research productivity, the existing survey research techniques with repeated use and related technology development should be enhanced.