Digging through patents to make mining greenerHello world!

Researchers identify R&D strategies for greener tech in the mining sector

In a report published in Resources Policy, Hidemichi Fujii from Kyushu University’s Faculty of Economics, Japan, and Andre Yamashita from Luleå University of Technology’s Control Engineering Group, Sweden, analyzed the trends in global patent applications from the mining and minerals sector to reveal strategies for promoting R&D in mining-related climate change mitigation technology, or CCMT. They found that the development of CCMTs in the industry was influenced by both the Paris Agreement and raw metal price trends, but the degree of influence varies by country and how much the sector contributes to the country’s economy.

This research collaboration started at MIRAI’s Research and Innovation Week 2021. This event was online due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation but this was be one of the good examples to expand and deepen academic relationships between two countries. For more information about this research, see “Trend and priority change of climate change mitigation technology in the global mining sector,” Andre S. Yamashita and Hidemichi Fujii, Resources Policy (2022).

Full release is available at the below Kyushu University website. This collaboration was also supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Number JP20K12283.