We live in a world characterized by an ever increasing human population which faces the challenge of managing her scarce resources that are derived from non-reproducible mineral on the one hand and renewable but low yielding biological (agricultural) resources on the other hand. While activities such as mining which according to Peele and Church (1941) is perhaps the second oldest human endeavour may be responsible for the former, climate change is the underlying factor sabotaging the later. Suspension of mining activities in the country and the consequent blockage of miners¿ source of livelihood is not the philosophy behind this book as for instance, even while two out of every three tons of new steel are produced from scrap, it is still necessary to continue to use some quantities of virgin materials reason being that many steel products remain in service for decades at a time and demand for the metal around the world remains on the increase. It has however been observed that there are few viable medium or large scale scrap metal recycling plants especially in the middle-belt region of Nigeria. Thus, this book focuses on exploring the potential benefits of driving the Nigerian.

Theophilus I Ojonimi é Professor de Engenharia de Minas, Universidade de Jos Nigéria. Tem um Mestrado em Engenharia Metalúrgica com especial interesse em Caracterização Mineral/Processamento e Reciclagem de Resíduos de Minas. É Engenheiro Metalúrgico Registado no Conselho para a Regulamentação da Engenharia na Nigéria (COREN).