2652 details of the grinding units, e.g., material type, wear rate, etc. (from primary data), is crucial for further improving the LCA. Figure 3 shows the emissions results across all three case studies. Figure 2 – Copper case emissions results – distribution by a) source and by b) plant unit Figure 3 – Emissions results per case study (distribution by source) At the iron concentrator, electricity remains a key driver, though the absolute share is lower than in the copper case due to Brazil’s lower grid EF (0.213 kg CO2e/kWh). The same can be seen for the lithium case study, as Finland’s grid electricity EF (0.146 kg CO2e/kWh) is also lower than Chile’s (0.563 kg CO2e/kWh). In both cases, emissions from wear materials and reagents account for around 50% of the total LCA emissions, underscoring the importance of focusing on scope 3 emissions. An important part of the 4th stage in the LCA framework is not only to interpret the results but also to understand the sensitivity. A sensitivity analysis was therefore conducted across all three processing plants to evaluate the effects of various parameters on the final emissions results. This analysis (Figure 4) highlights the dominant role of electricity in the copper case study. Doubling the electricity EF increases the copper case GWP by approximately 72%, while doubling grinding electricity consumption raises it by ±61%. In comparison, equivalent changes in wear and reagent EFs result in relatively smaller impacts. For the iron case, the electricity EF and grinding electricity are also both influential (50% and 35% respectively). The lithium case resulted in similar findings to that of the iron case, hence only the iron results are shown below. - 250 500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 Emissions by source Emissions by plant unit Emissions (kg.CO2e/t Cu) Electricity Wear Reagents Grinding Beneficiation Dewatering 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Copper case Iron case Lithium case Emissions (kg.CO2e/t) Electricity Wear Reagents -100% -50% 0% 50% 100% Elec EF Wear EF Reagents EF Grinding elec Change in GWP a) Copper case sensitivity
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