ME Elecmetal achieves 71% circularity of its raw material for cast liners

 

 

Once the liner is used by the client in its operation, the worn part is scrap or waste in the clients’ warehouses, which accumulates over time.

This, added to the new provisions of the REP (Extended Producer Responsibility) Law, which defines obligations for industries regarding their production processes and how to manage waste in an integrated manner.

Customers can now pay for another actor in the chain to manage and/or dispose of their waste.

 

 

Since 2016, the operations area, together with other support teams, has sought to increase the circularity of the products we develop. To this end, we have progressively integrated recycled raw materials in the different products developed locally, as is the case of steel liners.

 

We began by identifying the composition of these products, once used by mining customers. The result of the research was to understand that once these components were implemented in the mining processes, they still had 95% of material that could be reused.

 

Therefore, the supply area monitors the purchases made by the customers, and then buys and recirculates the scrap and reconverts it into a new liner.

Starting in 2020 our customers started asking us not only about process and quality issues, but a common question was what they are doing in terms of circular economy or how they are measuring their carbon footprint.”

Matías Bustos, Operations Manager of Elecmetal Chile.

 

 

 

 

We use 95% raw material in the product, achieving a circularity rate of 71% during 2022 (see graph). This has meant a reduction from 8.4% virgin raw material usage in 2016, to 3.8% in 2021.

 

 

 

 

With this initiative, all of our customers contribute to circularity:

  • Pelambres
  • Collahuasi
  • Escondida
  • Anglo American
  • Chinalco
  • Centinela
  • Candelaria
  • Caserones
  • Quebrada Blanca
  • Spence
  • Antaparcay
  • Codelco Chuquicamata
  • Codelco MInistro Hales
  • Codelco Teniente
  • Codelco Andina

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