RECYCLING - EAFD

Electric Arc Furnace Dust (EAFD)

Recycling of steel scrap accounts for approx. 50% of global steel production. Steel scrap generally contains a significant proportion of galvanised material and the zinc in this material is collected in the recycling process in the EAFD.

There are approx. 3.2 million tonnes of EAFD produced throughout the world each year and this contains about 0.7 million tonnes of zinc, which is about 7% of global demand. EAFD is not amenable to treatment in existing zinc smelters because it contains deleterious elements that are soluble in water and, as such, is regarded as a hazardous waste. EAFD is either deposited in special landfill sites at great cost to the steel mills, or re-treated in waelz kilns to produce an intermediary zinc concentrate. The latter process is not cost effective and relies heavily on the subsidy (equivalent to the cost of landfill) that the steel mills pay to the re-treatment plants.

Test work by ZincOx on various EAFD materials has shown that the hydrometallurgical process developed by the management of the company to recover zinc from the Skorpion deposit in Namibia can be applied to the treatment of EAFD. ZincOx has secured several sources of EAFD (including the company's projects in Turkey and the USA) for recovery of the zinc contained in such material.

An Electric Arc Furnace.

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