Elemetal successfully operated her prototype plant over the months of April, May and June 2017. This prototype plant can process non-ferrous streams containing copper and zinc from all different recycling markets like bottom ash, electronics, car shredding, automotive car shredding residue, etc.. Elemetal is able to recover and refine the copper and zinc into a pure copper cathodes (LMA Grade A) and other zinc derivative products. The prototype plant has a copper production capacity of 125 kg/day and 65 kg/day of zinc.

If you are interested in testing your product into the pilot feel free to contact us.

Elemetal is pleased to bring the news that it has received notification that the patent application in the United States has been granted for the hydrometallurgical process to recover metals from bottom ashes, the residue from waste to energy facilities. The patent, with application number 13/500,485, has a standard term of 20 years from the effective date of 6 October 2009 (being the date of original filing of the PCT Application from which the United States patent is derived).

On Thursday the 11th of December the first copper cathodes out of bottom ash where produced. After a month of hard work and a lot of overtime Elemetal managed to run the setup steadily. Copper is extracted from an integral bottom ash stream (0-32 mm) which has already been processed by the conventional magnetic separators and eddy current separators.

Currently we already extracted 3.5 kg of copper per tonne of bottom ash (based on dry weight bottom ash).

From June up to November 2014 Elemetal has been very busy together with Attero with the preparation of a large scale pilot at the Deurne sight of Attero. During this pilot a revolutionary way of “heap leaching” will be tested on a large scale in concrete tunnels on bottom ash. To make a proper leaching test possible a solvent extraction (SX) and electrowinning (EW) circuit has been added to the setup. This SX/EW has been developed by Elemetal together with our partner Iontech, and is able to produce a maximum of 50 tonnes of copper per year.

On March 12th a report with a heavy copper cover was delivered to Pierre Vincent, director of Attero. In the report, which weighs 7 kilos, the results of a successful project to retrieve copper from bottom ash were presented. The cover of the report was made from copper recovered during the pilot project. The name of the project is Puur Koper Terugwinning-project (PKT), which means Pure Copper Retrieval-project. This project has been executed by Elemetal in cooperation with Attero.
For the years 2015 and 2016 a scale up of the technology is scheduled together with Attero. This will be done in two steps. First "large scale heap leaching" tests will be performed to get the technology ready for market introduction. These large scale heap tests are scheduled for September until December 2014 and will be executed at Attero. The second step consists of a modular scale up of the technology to attain commercial scale.

To generate and deliver energy we need raw materials. To produce materials we need energy. There is a clear connection.

For example, windmills contain a lot of copper. Overhead power lines which transport this electricity are made out of copper. The wiring in our houses is made out of copper. Anything that you connect to this wiring by plugging it into a power socket contains a lot of copper. Copper is required for energy!

The same goes for the other metals. Iron, aluminium and alloy metals are needed for drilling, mining and tankers; special metals are required for batteries; cadmium, gallium and tellurium are needed for solar panels; and uranium is needed for nuclear power.

It costs a lot of energy to get the copper ore out of the earth, subsequently it takes a lot of energy to make copper out of copper ore and then it will cost a lot of energy to shape copper into the form you want it to take. Energy is required for copper!

Elemetal has become an accredited (Ecabo) company. This means we will be training students and preparing them for their careers. We do this because we believe there is much to learn on the work floor as a continuation of or replenishment to their studies. Also we believe it is interesting to get "fresh blood" into the company to keep us on our toes.

De Ingenieur has published the following articles: As wassen and Vervangings techniek (Dutch)