Silvermet provides update on expansion plans

The board of directors for Silvermet Inc., headquartered in Toronto, has announced plans to upgrade its existing Iskenderun, Turkey, plant, which will allow the company to extract more zinc from electric arc furnace dust. Silvermet owns a 49 percent stake in the joint venture, Befesa Silvermet Turkey S.L., which operates a Waelz kiln facility in Iskenderun.

In a statement, the Toronto-based company says its board determined that expanding its existing plant will be less expensive than constructing a new processing facility in Adana, Turkey. Silvermet says it is focused on the development of electric arc furnace dust recycling.

The company says engineering and permitting on the expansion is presently being undertaken with commissioning expected by the second half of 2015. When complete, the expansion will increase electric arc furnace dust recycling capacity at its Iskenderun plant from 60,000 metric ton per year to 110,000 metric tons per year. The increase will allow the company to increase its zinc concentrate production to more than 50 million pounds of contained zinc per year.