|
Processes
- Non-Ferrous (Aluminum / Copper / Zinc / Lead / Magnesium): Overview
Production
processes for primary non-ferrous materials, produced from mined ore, are covered
in this section. Energy use data for secondary melting processes are also included.
Depending on the material, over 25% to approaching 70% of the total production
is recycled from recovered scrap and re-melted.
The proportion
of the U.S. supply of metals derived from secondary sources is shown below. Different
sources provide somewhat different figures, but these numbers are reasonable and
indicate the relative level of secondary processing for each metal.
A good source
for recycling information, with descriptions of both the processes involved and
market factors influencing recycling rates, can be accessed in a series of documents
issued by the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS). Each document dealing with a specific
metal.
The following
Advisor pages provide an overview of primary process information for all the Non-ferrous
metals included in this module. The attached PDF produced by Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL) provides fairly detailed summaries of mining, ore processing,
and mining related process recovery operations for Copper, Zinc and Lead. It was
produced in 2001 and includes process diagrams and a mining-related glossary.
|
Home
