Dowa Metals & Mining to Launch Zinc Recycle Plant in Dec 2010

Dowa Metals & Mining decided to start zinc recycling business. The firm builds raw material pretreatment plant for 5 billion yen to supply for the zinc smelter, Akita Zinc. Dowa Metals & Mining starts the construction of the plant with annual 20,000 tonnes of treatment capacity in zinc volume in October starting the operation in December 2010.

Integrated and electric furnace steel makers expand investment for rotary hearth furnace to recover more iron from steel making dust, which also contains zinc oxide. Dowa Metals & Mining treats the zinc oxide into material for zinc smelting.

Traditional steel making dust contained only 1-2% of zinc and the recovery was difficult. However, dust from rotary hearth furnace contains 50-60% of zinc. Dowa Metals & Mining’s recycling subsidiary treats the zinc rich dust to make material for zinc smelting.

The new recycling plant makes liquid with more than 100 gram of zinc in 1 litter to supply for zinc smelting in Akita Zinc. Dowa group’s Kosaka Smelting & Refining will recover lead and copper from zinc oxide from steel makers.

Akita Zinc, in which Dowa group has 81% of interest, has annual 200,000 tonnes of zinc production capacity. Akita Zinc purchases 15% of total required zinc ore from Tizapa mine in Mexico. With the new recycling plant, Akita Zinc can secure around 35% of the raw materials from own sources.