The evolution of technology for extractive metallurgy over the last 50 years: Is the best yet to come?

The nonferrous metals industry (NFMI) essentially came together in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of the physical plants for the NFMI industry built in the early days of the industry were in need of technological retrofits and upgrades. Many companies were financially strong enough to set up corporate research and development centers to provide them with the technologies they would need to grow their businesses. This resulted in the emergence of a wide variety of technologies for the generic problems of the industry, particularly the need to process declining ore grades in North America. At the start of the 1980s, NFMI companies were doing well due to the consequences of high inflation. However, the investment in technology at corporate research and technology centers helped to mitigate the impact of higher costs of energy prices and environmental compliance. By the early 1990s, the US NFMI was in much better shape, although nickel was adversely impacted by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accompanying flood of stainless steel crap that came on the market. Most companies had begun working as integrated worldwide entities, assisted by the beginnings of true globalization. The late 1990s/early 2000s saw the NFMI once more in a depressed state. A global economic downturn sparked by such events as the Asian currency crisis and the prolonged Japanese recession put the NFMI in a state of surplus capacity for most metals.