Project Status: Complete.
Further work carried out under the 4A1 Extension project.
Project Participants: ANSTO, CSIRO, Xstrata, OneSteel
Project Leader: Sharif Jahanshahi (CSIRO)
Most tailings, residues, slags and fumes produced by the mineral processing and metal producing industries contain large quantities of valuable components such as iron, zinc, titania, copper, selenium and lime. Most of these valuable components could be separated and converted into saleable products and feedstock for construction industry.
Other wastes produced by petrochemical and metallurgical industries are rich in carbonaceous materials that can serve as good fuel and reductant in smelting processes. Many of these waste materials also contain toxic and hazardous substances such as arsenic, mercury and cyanide that cause the waste to be classified as hazardous. These materials could also become a subject of radiation protection legislation due to the presence of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). High temperature processing of these materials allows chemical transformation, destruction of some hazardous components and separation of elements into different streams, which could become more valuable and potentially saleable products.
This project brought together a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, mineral processing, radioactivity measurement, flowsheet modelling, techno-economic evaluation and LCA. The research team developed a systematic approach for characterising and prioritising the top 20 industrial wastes for future investigations. Review of literature and industry practices for treatment and extraction of valuable components from some of these waste materials was carried out and conceptual flowsheets were developed with a zero waste goal. This project was also aimed at identifying new opportunities in industrial ecology.
The research objectives were to: