Successful upcycling of industrial residues requires integrated valorization strategies. This work presents case studies on copperCopper ore flotation tailings and copper slag flotation tails, highlighting potential processing approaches for recoveryRecovery supported by experimental data and economic estimations. Although extracting critical metalsCritical metals yields products of comparatively higher market value relative to construction use or CO2 mineralizationCO mineralization, the extractionExtraction and recoveryRecovery processes remain cost-intensive at the current stage and often generate large volumes of residual waste, motivating the use of leached residues for construction applications. In parallel, directly using tailings as supplementary cementitious materials or in other civil engineering applications can consume larger volumes but may sacrifice potential metal value. CO2 mineralizationCO mineralization offers another pathway for tailings valorization aligned with decarbonization goals. Fundamental characterization and early calorimetry analyses of three tailings are presented, as well as tests mixing slag tails before and after NaHCO3-based aqueous carbonation in cement hydration systems. Preliminary insights into sustainable copperCopper tailings management are provided, with economic estimations under assumed scenarios in this study for valorizing 4.5 million tonnes of tailings annually, highlighting the potential for construction applications.