Displaying items by tag: copper slag

Indonesia: Fajar Harry Sampurno, the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Ministry's undersecretary for mining, strategic industries and media affairs, says that the Environment and Forestry Ministry will issue rules stating that mineral waste such as slags resulting from processing nickel and copper ores could be used as raw material for the production of bricks, asphalt, concrete and cement. Mineral waste including copper and nickel slags are currently categorised as hazardous and toxic waste (B3), requiring special handling, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper.

Harjanto, the Industry Ministry's metal, machinery, transportation equipment and electronic industries director general, said the volume of nickel slag, which at present totals 20Mt/yr, would increase ‘sharply’ within the next few years when new mineral smelters currently under construction start operating. The government expects the construction of 31 smelters to be completed by 2021. At the end of 2018 27 smelters were operating, of which 17 are nickel smelters.

US: Residents in Anaconda, Montana have put questions to a proposed copper slag processing plant project as part of a community outreach initiative. Premier Industries wants to build a plant to use copper slag left over from the local copper industry to produce proppant, a material used in oil fracking and natural gas extraction, according to the Montana Standard newspaper. The project, first announced in early 2016, is scheduled to start operation by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Questions from the local community covered jobs, the financial viability of the project and increased traffic.

India: Vedanta-Sterlite Copper has met with the Kerala state government to discuss the use of copper slag in road building. The copper subsidiary of Vedanta wants to use copper slag as a partial replacement for river sand and manufactured sand in the construction of roads in the state, according to the Times of India newspaper. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has approved the usage of copper slag in various grades of concrete as a partial substitute for sand. Vedanta-Sterlite’s Tutucorin plant is currently produces 60,000 - 70,000t/yr of slag, none of which is used.