World Recycling Forum: Sustainable Thinking

Xstrata Copper bills its Horne Smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada, as “the world’s largest processor of electronic scrap containing copper and precious metals.” Speaking during a session of the World Recycling Forum, held in Hong Kong in mid-November, Paul Healey of Xstrata outlined how the company has put a sustainability plan in place that ideally ensures that the surrounding community understands the smelter’s role in the recycling loop. Healey said its Horne Smelter takes “relatively low-grade materials,” containing perhaps 20 percent copper, “and upgrades the material to 99 percent pure copper, which then goes to Xstrata’s Montreal refinery to become finished product.” About 85 percent of the feedstock for the Horne Smelter consists of copper concentrate that averages about 24 percent copper content, Healey added, with the remaining 15 percent of feedstock being electronic scrap and circuit boards, including material from Xstrata Recycling’s facilities in California and Rhode Island. In Rouyn-Noranda and surrounding communities, Healey said Xstrata has implemented a sustainability policy that “extends to asset management, product stewardship, contractor management, procurement” and strengthening ties with the community and government agencies

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World Recycling Forum: Sustainable Thinking