Increase Safe and Credible Production Prices by Using a Smelter
In the mining world, there is such a thing as a smelter. So, what is a smelter? Smelter is a facility that must exist in the mining industry today. This facility helps the company to operate optimally and productively because the support of this facility enables mine production to reach a high standard level.
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Mining is one of the vital sectors in Indonesia that must be considered in the process from preparation to post-mining. All require detailed control, including the provision of supporting tools so that high capital and high risk work, can be optimally produced.
What is a Smelter?
Before going into further discussion, let's understand together what is a smelter? The use of this term absorbs the origin of the English word, namely smelting which means melting. The smelting process itself is in a metal mineral mining process.
Through the smelting process with a smelter, the metal content can be increased. When the value of the content increases, the selling value of metals will also increase among other commodities, so that consumers and producers can make profit.
This increase in metal content not only increases the selling price in the country, but also increases the selling price for export abroad. This facility has an important role in the process of separating impurities from metals or carrying out refining processes.
How Smelters Work
After understanding the definition, now it's time to dig better into how smelters work. Generally, this tool works by ore reduction, where the result will be several important products.
The results of ore reduction can be hydrogen, active metals, and so on. In supporting the reduction process, the active substances involved depend on the type of metal being reduced. The higher the metal activity level, the more difficult the reduction process will be.
Conversely, if the level of activity is lower, the reduction process can also be easier. Examples of metals with high levels of activity are magnesium and aluminum, while metals with low levels of activity are gold and copper.
In the middle between the low and high levels, there is an intermediate level. At this intermediate level, the types of metals are tin, iron, and nickel. The process of smelting intermediate metals using a smelter is not difficult, but not easy either.
In essence, how this tool works depends on the type of metal that goes into the tool. The lower the active content, the easier the smelting process. Meanwhile, the higher the activity level, the more difficult the smelting process.
Functions and Benefits
After understanding how it works, let's understand further what its functions and benefits are. The existence of this facility in the mining industry is not trivial because since the government has required all mining companies to have it.
No kidding, even the total government investment in the procurement of this technology reaches 20 billion dollars. The goal is that the results of production or commodities are no longer in the form of raw goods so that later product prices will increase.
When commodity prices increase, it will also benefit the state's income or profits. We summarize the functions and benefits of using this tool in the following explanation:
Increase sales value for minerals and metals
Make local and international investors to inject higher investment value
Open more job opportunities so that the number of unemployed will be decreased
Support downstream development in Indonesia
Help to improve human resource skills
Based on these functions and benefits, many aspects benefit from the presence of a smelter in the smelting process. It starts with benefits for the country, benefits for job seekers, benefits for consumers, and benefits for companies.
It is not surprising that the government requires smelter facilities for all mining companies. If you look at the benefits, there are many positive things that can be given through the assistance of the smelting facility.
Types of Metal Materials Requiring Smelter Process
When you already understand the following definition of how it works, now let's understand what types of metal require smelting through a smelter. There are many types, especially since Indonesia is a country with rich natural mining resources.
Starting from metal materials with low and high levels of activity, we will mention them here. Here are the various types of metal materials that require smelting with a smelter:
Copper
Nickel
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Gold
Iron
Silver
Manganese
Bauxite
Lead
Data for states that 19 facilities have been realized, of which 13 are for nickel, copper, bauxite, manganese, and iron. The data is issued directly by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
By the end of , the government added 4 facilities, bringing the total to 23. The goal is to increase the mineral investment target to 5.98 billion dollars. Complete information related to smelters is required to exist in the mining world.
To support the mining sector in Indonesia, Sucofindo is one of the companies that play a major role in providing this one tool. The existence of a smelter further confirms this seriousness to help the mining sector to increase its performance.
For more information about inspection and audit services and mineral mining sector, you can read our article here. If you and your company need further information regarding our services, contact and consult about it here.
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Lead Smelting
Description
According to the Blacksmith TSIP database, there are an estimated 2.5
million people at risk at almost 70 polluted lead smelting sites
investigated in developing countries worldwide. Lead smelting is an
industrial process that treats lead ores to remove impurities, and then
using furnaces and through the addition of fluxes and other chemical
agents produces metallic lead. Primary lead smelting uses mined ores
while secondary lead smelting reprocesses use lead scrap material
collected through various recovery streams. The primary source of lead
ore is from the mineral galena, lead sulfide. In primary lead processing
the lead ore is fed into furnaces along with other materials where the
sulfur is burned off. The material is then heated in order to smelt and
separate the lead metal from slag and other byproducts. The lead metal
is collected for refining and further processing depending on its final
use. The slag is a waste material that contains zinc, iron, silica,
lime, as well as some lead. In well-regulated processes, the slag will
be recycled to prevent pollutants from escaping.
In secondary smelting, the lead-containing components must first be separated from the plastic components and then a similar smelting process is used. One of the largest sources of recycled lead materials are used lead-acid batteries, but it can also be obtained from cable coverings, lead pipes, sheets or other metals containing lead. Secondary lead smelting can be done in a similar manner to primary but high lead content waste can be processed at relatively low temperatures and is sometimes carried out in informal, crude and highly polluting facilities.
Exposure Pathways
In the developed world the lead smelting industry has been effective in managing the issues associated with the safe production, handling and use of lead and has raised awareness of sustainability through the International Lead Association's Lead Action 21 programme. However in countries with inadequate enforcement of environmental legislation lead released from the smelting process can enter the environment through several different pathways. Air emissions can contain lead fumes and dust, sulfur dioxide (a gas) and other various particulates. Fine dust particles can contain arsenic, antimony, cadmium, copper, and mercury as well as lead.[1] Pollutants also are found in water near smelting factories with inadequate environmental controls, where wastewater from smelting processes has been improperly disposed of. Dust and slag can accumulate in soil and seep into ground water or food if agricultural fields are located near smelters. In smelting processes with few or no pollution controls, air emissions could contain up to 30 kg of lead per metric ton of lead produced. [2]
Currently, the Blacksmith Institute's database shows the bulk of smelting related lead pollution problems in sites are in China, Eastern Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. Global lead consumption was expected to increase by about 6% in to 10.1 million tons, partly from a 7% increase in Chinese consumption.[3]
Top Pollutant(s)
Lead is the largest contributing contaminant from lead smelting pollution and puts surrounding communities at risk for numerous health problems. As discussed above, there are multiple pathways for contaminants to enter the environment, since lead itself is the input and output of lead smelting. Other pollutants could also include mercury and cadmium.
Global Burden of Disease
Blacksmith Institute estimates that the health of 4.5 million people in the countries included in the TSIP database are potentially at risk from lead smelting. These exposures were determined to result in 2.6 million DALYs in the 49 countries reviewed. In all 49 countries reviewed, lead was the single largest contributor to the disease burden, resulting in more than 13 million DALYs. As a comparison, tuberculosis accounts for about 25 million DALYs.
What is being done?
Modern pollution controls, environmental health and safety standards and precautions can be taken to greatly reduce the incidence of pollutants entering the environment from lead smelting. Newer processes use less energy and capture sulfur more efficiently or use scrubbers and other types of stack pollutant controls to reduce pollutants in emissions.[4] These types of controls are widespread in developed countries; however, these controls can be expensive to implement and are not often found at facilities in developing countries. Smelters in the developing world are concerned about the cost of production, because they are competing for ULAB with the informal sector that pays high prices because they do not employ adequate environmental controls or pay any taxes. Consequently many avoid installing expensive emission controls, even though there is often a benefit in such controls over the long term due to the ability to capture and recover all the lead dust. Another common problem relates to maintenance and proper operation of the emission controls where they exist. Significantly, in lower income countries the industry is often under-regulated and these types of controls are not required for recycling operations. The informal so-called 'backyard smelters' are a particular problem for regulators. These are often crude operations which are difficult to locate and when they are, they often pack up and move to avoid regulation and prosecution. In some cases these plants can be upgraded, but in other cases they need to be closed down and the operations transferred to a modern, environmentally sound facility.
Remediation efforts at lead smelters have been successful and there are well-tested standards for the collection and removal of lead contaminated soils. In Russia, the Rudnaya River valley and the neighboring town of Dalnegorsk, the second largest city in the region, were heavily polluted by lead. The population was exposed to high levels of lead contamination caused by lead transport and a local lead smelter. Although the lead smelter was closed soon after Blacksmith first started working there in , over 50% of children tested in the region presented abnormally high blood lead levels. Blacksmith implemented an outreach program that included educational efforts, lead remediation, and medical aid. The project removed the most heavily leaded soil, which was put into environmentally sound landfills. A group of families with children who had the most severely elevated blood lead levels were given treatment to accelerate the expulsion of heavy metals from their systems. Additionally, over 5,000 families were educated on how to reduce exposure and impacts of lead. By identifying and cleaning up the areas most heavily frequented by children, blood lead levels have decreased significantly. By , only two years after the start of the project, the number of children in Dalnegorsk with very high blood-lead levels dropped to 9%.
Footnotes:
[1] 'Lead and Zinc Smelting'. Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook. World Bank Group. Washington, DC, .
[2] 'Lead and Zinc Smelting'. Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook. World Bank Group. Washington, DC, .
[3] USGS Minerals Information: Lead. 'Lead Statistics and Information.' U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 16 Aug. . Web. Sept. . http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/lead/
[4] 'Lead and Zinc Smelting'. Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook. World Bank Group. Washington, DC, .
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