Global Slag News

Korea: Korean researchers have developed a new cement-producing technology using reduced iron and steel slag.

On 11 March 2014, the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) and the R&D Centre for Valuable Recycling announced that they have succeeded in producing rapid-hardening cement from metal slag reduced during the scrap metal recycling process, adding that the technology is suitable for commercialisation immediately.

Korean authorities bury 720,000t/yr of reduced metal slag in landfills. Using the new technology, Korea will be able to save US$3.79m in reduced slag disposal costs and produce US$254m of rapid-hardening cement. Korea has been relying on imported rapid-hardening cement for more than 80% of its domestic use.

The new technology is also expected to result in a 0.5Mt/yr reduction in CO₂ emissions, as it doesn't require the high-temperature melting of slag that is used in the current rapid-hardening cement manufacturing process. The two organisations added that the world could be supplied with US$6bn of cement if the technology was applied to the 17Mt/yr of reduced metal slag produced globally.

China: Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining plans to take over 100% of the equities in Chenzhou Xiongfeng Rare & Precious Metal Materials through a share offering and cash payment. The target equities were assessed at US$145m. Chenzhou Xiongfeng recycles metals like bismuth, silver, gold and palladium from nonferrous metal smelting slag. Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining will raise capital by selling shares to not more than ten investors and the financing will be not more than 25% of consideration for the deal.

China: China Magnesium Corporation Ltd (CMC) has executed and commenced a cooperation agreement with Pingyao County Fengyan Mineral Wool Co Ltd (FMW), effective from 1 February 2015. The effect of the agreement is that CMC will have a 60% economic interest in FMW, control a majority of the FMW board seats and be responsible for the management of FMW's business.

FMW is an established and profitable medium-sized metallurgy company based in Pingyao, Shanxi Province. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fengyan Coal & Coke Group Company Ltd. FMW can produce 150,000t/yr of ferronickel and uses the waste slag from the ferronickel production to produce mineral wool and mineral wool acoustic board products, among other industrial products. It currently purchases all of CMC's semi-coke to use in its ferronickel production. Any external ferronickel requirements in respect of CMC's recycling and production are also currently supplied to CMC by FMW.

India: There are plans to establish four major steel plants in the iron ore rich states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka, according to Union minister for Steel, Narendra Singh Tomar. He said that the country aims to acheive 300Mt/yr of steel production capacity by 2030 and the proposed four new plants are expected to contribute with a total capacity of 20Mt/yr.

India: JSW Cement, which has set up a 4.8Mt/yr capacity plant at Nandiyal in Kurnool, is hoping to increase its capacity utilisation to 100% in two years from the current 50%.

"This would be driven by an increase in cement demand from infrastructure and housing segments," said JSW Cement director and CEO Anil Kumar Pillai. The Nandiyal unit was set up with an investment of US$228m. "We are hopeful of using full capacity at the Nandiyal plant by 2017 - 2018 on the back of an increase in demand for cement."

The current plant could be extended to have a second unit of similar or higher capacity, if required. The long-term plan was to have 30Mt/yr in 10 years at multiple locations. For the slag requirements of the cement plant, JSW would also increase the capacity of its steel plant at Vijaynagar from 12Mt/yr to 20Mt/yr.