Urban Mining:Recovering Critical Raw Materials and Foreign Exchange from Waste Rechargeable Batteries in Nigeria
Keywords:
Urban mining, resource recovery, circular economy, recycle, foreign exchangeAbstract
Urban mining involves extracting raw materials from waste as a sustainable approach to resource recovery. In Nigeria, waste rechargeable batteries (WRB) represent a major prospect for urban mining, particularly within the framework of recovering critical raw materials (CRM) and foreign exchange value. Improper disposal of WRB not only poses environmental risks but also results in the loss of valuable resources that could be recycled and reused. Urban mining provides a feasible solution by converting waste into wealth, thus contributing to a circular economy. The process of urban mining involves collection, disassembly, and chemical processing of WRB to extract metals. In Nigeria, this practice could reduce the dependency on raw material imports or virgin material mining and provide a new revenue flow through the sale of recovered metals on the international market. This study mined data from the UN Comtrade database for battery importation into Nigeria from 1999 – 2022 and used the mean metal levels determined in WRB (Co, 28.9 g/t; Li, 66 g/t; Mn, 18.3 g/t; and Ni, 24.3 g/t) to estimate recoverable CRM. Data from UN Comtrade showed importation of 2.63 Mt of WRB into Nigeria. If the WRBs are collected and recycled, 76 t of Co, 174 t of Li and 48.3 t of Mn and 64.1 t of Ni can be recovered can be recovered from the batteries considering results of this study. Considering the CRM unit prices in the mineral market (Co, US$28550/t; Li, US$15343/t; Mn, US$1690/t and US$16863 for Ni) the recoverable metals are worth US$6 Million. This shows that much forex can be obtained from WRB if collected and recycled, stimulating economic growth. However, if disposed with municipal waste, they will contaminate the environment; endangering the lives of plants, animals and humans.
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