Mining Firm Seeks to Test E-Scrap at Smelter

The British Columbia-based metals producer has won approval from the B.C. Ministry of Environment to conduct a large-scale test of a recycling process at its Trail lead smelter that will see it consume up to 3,000 metric tons of electronic waste that would otherwise go to landfills and churn out some of the metals it is known for producing.

According to the Vancouver Sun provincial consumers will pay a surcharge on new television sets, computers, and printers, beginning in mid-2007, to ensure that thousands of metric tons of electronics waste now being dumped in landfills each year is recycled for its metals, glass, and plastics.

Doug Horswill, Teck Cominco's senior vice-president of environmental and corporate affairs, said Teck's recycling program won't generate a lot of money for the company, but will help the Trail smelter's profitability while at the same time deliver the community a social benefit.

"[The electronics waste] is something that would otherwise end up in landfills," Horswill said. "And while we're getting rid of it, we recover certain metals, to some degree."

Mark Edwards, manager of environmental, health and safety programs at the Trail smelter said that ultimately, Teck Cominco would like to take in up to 20,000 metric tons of discarded electronics.

Teck Cominco works with a local recycling company in Trail, KC Recycling, to collect the waste and pulverize it into bits that are about five centimetres in diameter.

Edwards said smelter staff feed the pulverized waste into one of the smelter's fuming furnaces, which incinerates the plastic, wood and other burnable parts of electronics gear and melts the metals.

Edwards added that the lead -- and there is a lot of lead in television sets in particular -- will be separated out and into the plant's lead smelting process to be re-cast into new lead.

The zinc, which is extremely valuable on world markets these days, and cadmium will also be separated out.

Edwards said any copper, iron ore in the steel of casings and frames, trace amounts of silver and gold will find their way into residual material called ferrous granules, which will be used in the production of cement.

"One way or another, we recover everything that's there either as fuel to burn, or the metals themselves," Edwards said.

Edwards added that most of the material will come from Alberta, where consumers pay a deposit on electronic goods that helps pay for proper disposal, noting that B.C. is headed in that direction as well.

Edwards said Teck's program couldn't recover its costs from recycling the metals alone.

Horswill added that the recycling program "certainly doesn't have the prospect of satisfying a huge component of the world's metal demands, but it is an idea in the right direction." Vancouver (British Columbia) Sun