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Japan is aiming at technological leadership, and has a clear and coherent policy for achieving it, which involves increasing investment in education, training and R&D. The scale of the training effort creates the organisational climate conducive to the acceptance of change. Examples are given of the volume of in‐company training, for instance on brainstorming, and of retraining electronic engineers for biotechnology.

This paper sets out to propose a new cut‐off optimization algorithm for effective decision making at the open pit mine planning stage.

The determination of optimum cut‐off grade to maximize the net present value of an open pit mining operation is influenced by the economic parameters including metal price and operating costs, the capacities of mine, mill, and refining stages, and grade distribution of the mineral deposit. The market plays a vital role in changing the economic parameters; therefore, they may escalate during mine life. The effect of these changes could be enormous on optimum cut‐off grade policy. The main motive is to introduce economic parameters escalation into the established theory of optimum cut‐off grades and study the impact of these changes on overall economics of the operation. Therefore, a cut‐off grade optimization algorithm is developed, which considers dynamic metal price and cost escalation during mine life.

A copper deposit case study shows that, keeping the metal price escalation at a minimum, the impact of mining and milling costs escalation is relatively higher than refining and administrative costs. Hence, a high‐escalation rate in mining and milling costs may change an economic operation into an uneconomic scenario.

Management of stockpiles as a policy may be introduced in the algorithm for improvement in economy through maximum utilization of mineral resources.

The algorithm due to its flexibility allows analysis of various options in the least possible time, which makes it valuable to mine planners in decision making for major mining investments.

Recycling technology for printed wiring boards (PWBs) with mounted electronic components was studied for the purpose of disassembling the boards, recovering useful materials, and reusing these materials. An automatic removal method was developed for the electronic components on the basis of a combination of heating to above the solder melting temperature and applying impacting the shearing forces. Most of the electronic components were recovered undamaged and the solder was able to be recovered as particles. The solder remaining on the board was recovered by abrading the board surface and by using a heating‐impacting process. After these processes, the resin board (a cured epoxy resin board reinforced with glass fibre)was pulverised and separated into a copper‐rich powder (copper: 82 Wt%) and a glass fibre and resin mixture powder (glass fibre‐resin powder) by gravimetric and electrostatic methods. The recovered electronic components, solder and copper‐rich powder were used as valuable metal resources for refining. Moreover, the recovered glass fibre‐resin powder was found to be a useful filler for plastic products such as epoxy resin and ABS (acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene copolymer) resin.

This paper reviews some of the important processes underlying high temperature degradation of structural materials used in the petroleum and petrochemical industries. Particular emphasis is palced in degradation processes involving the interaction of structural metals and alloys with environments containing sulfidizing, carburizing, and halogenizing species. In addition the effect of gaseous hydrogen environments at elevated temperatures and pressures on the mechanical properties of steels will be discussed. The mechanism of attack and the effect of alloying elements in these phenomena will be described and discussed.

A range of robust dipping baskets are now offered by Tool Treatments (Chemicals) Ltd., Colliery Road, Birmingham Road, West Bromwich. These new baskets provide an advance over the usual type of wire mesh basket particularly as regards the selling prices, which are lower. The baskets are very suitable for use by the Plating trade and Metal Finishing industries as they are light but will stand up to extensive pickling in hydrochloric acid solutions.

Industries which, historically, have had to contend with severe corrosion problems have always been the first to investigate new materials. They had to, and 20 years ago industries such as the textile, pulp and paper, metal refining and chemical manufacturing turned their attention to reinforced plastics.

This paper seeks to critically analyse the list of principles on the extractive phase of the electronics supply chains, proposed for consumer electronic companies, by the non‐governmental campaign MakeITfair. The purpose is to understand whether conformance with these principles could positively influence the socio‐environmental conditions at the mining level.

The paper reviews the literature on incorporation of corporate social responsibility in supply chain management. It then examines how metals are mined, traded and used in electronics, as well as how the mining industry has been managing its own socio‐environmental problems. This information underpins the qualitative discussion of the principles.

MakeITfair's principles were found to be constructive insofar as they draw the attention of electronic companies to their shared responsibility for the problems of distant‐tier suppliers. Nevertheless, some principles may lead to potentially undesired outcomes such as biased prioritization of mining companies or regions, adoption of contentious “standards”, and conflicts concerning the sovereign rights of nations over their natural resources. Overall, the principles stress traceability mechanisms as means of influencing the mining phase of supply chains without considering the costs and benefits of overcoming the complexities involved in the metal trade and other barriers. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to consider additional ways of positively influencing metals supply.

The paper points out specific research priorities in the value chains of metals.

The paper provides a critical analysis of intricate responsibility issues in the supply chain of the world's top electronic companies.