Company Considers Building US Zinc Recycling Plant

ZincOx Resources plc, a UK-based company focused on the zinc industry, is taking the first step in possibly building a zinc recycling plant in the United States.

The company has entered into an alliance with Envirosafe Services of Ohio, Inc. through a cooperation agreement to complete a comprehensive feasibility study for the development of a plant to recover zinc from waste material, electric arc furnace dust, produced by steel recycling.

Under the terms of the agreement, ESOI will arrange for and deliver sufficient volumes of EAFD to serve as feed stock for the new plant, and will be responsible for properly managing the disposal of plant residue. ESOI is North America’s largest landfill disposal company for EAFD.

Andrew Woollett, ZincOx’s managing director said “Under this agreement ZincOx will have immediate access to sufficient feed for our first North American operation and will in addition benefit from the experience of our partner who will take responsibility for managing the secure disposal of residue from the plant. By effectively obtaining zinc feedstock for little or no cost we expect to produce zinc/zincoxide significantly more cheaply than existing operations”

The two companies are working together to complete a feasibility study for the recovery plant by the end of this year.

Preliminary plans call for the facility to be located in the Midwest, and will either produce special high-grade zinc metal or high purity zinc oxide, at a rate of about 25,000 metric tons a year of contained metal.

Preliminary economic studies have been carried out on each option and both show low operating costs.

The plans to site a facility in the United States is part of the company’s focus on recovering zinc from steel recycling waste. Late last year ZincOx announced that it was building a facility in Turkey. The company also is seeking other similar developments in Europe and Asia.

ESOI provides EAFD management services to the U.S. steel industry, primarily through a fully permitted treatment and disposal facility in northwest Ohio. ESOI's patented technology is currently used to manage nearly 30 percent of all EAFD produced in the United States, most of which is received at its Ohio location in rail or truck transportation managed by ESOI.