Sustainability
A CG model of Centrex Metals’ Ardmore phosphate plant in Queensland.
Why waste shouldn’t go to waste INDUSTRIAL RECYCLING, WHICH PRESENTS BOTH ENTICING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND PRACTICES, IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO IGNORE, WRITES CDE’S REGIONAL MANAGER IN AUSTRALASIA, DAN WEBBER.
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reating value from waste is vital in responding to increasing demand for quality metals, sand, coal and other materials alongside the growing power and energy sectors. The mining waste management market is estimated to reach 233.56 billion tons at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1 per cent from 2017 to 2022, according to Markets and Markets’ Mining Waste Management Market by Mining Method - Global Forecast to 2022, and forecasts from the United Nations predict resource consumption will double by 2060. CDE Meta is the mining-focused sector of CDE — the world’s largest wet processing company with some 2000 projects around the world co-created
with customers over the past 25 years — and operates in Australia under registered company CDE Australia. The sector focuses on delivering sustainable mine operations through ore upgrade, tailings diversion and waste dump reprocessing in line with CDE’s commitment to creating a new world of resource. This expertise has already been recognised by the Australian Mining Prospect Awards 2018, where the company was a finalist in the Excellence in Environmental Management category alongside household names Rio Tinto and Roy Hill Holdings. CDE Meta made the shortlist for its “pioneering approach to mining waste” transforming more than 17 million tonnes of overburden waste
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in South Australia into high grade iron ore for steel production. PIONEERING APPROACH TO MINING WASTE That pioneering approach to mining waste was paramount in 2017 when CDE Meta delivered two turnkey wet processing plants to upgrade 100-plus years of legacy overburden waste from the mining of the Iron Monarch and Iron Princess deposits situated in South Australia’s Middleback Ranges. The plants, located at the previously Arrium-owned Iron Knob and Iron Baron sites, were acquired by the GFG Alliance and renamed SIMEC Mining. The two wash plants were designed to convert 17 million tonnes of lowgrade iron ore stockpiled as tailings
