[Future Sought in Urban Mining]④"Expanding Copper Output to 150,000 Tons...Aiming for the World's Top Eco-Friendly Smelter"

[Interview] Kim Seunghyun, Head of Onsan Smelter at Korea Zinc


Efficiency Boosted by Preprocessing in the U.S.

More Economical and Eco-Friendly than Natural Mining

50,000 Tons Produced This Year through Hydrometallurgy and Pyromet

Servers and laptops that have reached the end of their life, and broken or shattered solar panel waste—while these may be difficult-to-dispose garbage for some, at Korea Zinc, they are considered a goldmine.

The starting point is the printed circuit boards (PCBs) recovered at Everterra Recycling's Chicago Hub, operated by Korea Zinc's U.S. subsidiary Pedal Point. After preprocessing, the raw materials are crushed and broken down into smaller pieces, then shipped across the Pacific Ocean to the Onsan Smelter in Ulju County, Ulsan.

At the Onsan Smelter, the recovered materials are melted in flames reaching thousands of degrees to extract copper, silver, and gold in lump (blister) form as a primary recovery. Subsequently, in the copper refining process, the copper is purified through electrochemical decomposition to produce pure copper with a purity of 99.99% or higher. According to this year’s supply plan, copper is the most recovered product from the raw materials supplied by Pedal Point, followed by silver and gold.

On the 28th, Kim Seunghyun, Head of Onsan Refinery at Korea Zinc, stated in an interview with The Asia Business Daily, "Onsan Refinery is pursuing the expansion of eco-friendly copper production to become the world's leading eco-friendly refinery," adding, "We plan to maximize resource circulation and economic added value." Korea Zinc

Seunghyun Kim, Head of Onsan Smelter at Korea Zinc, said in an interview with The Asia Business Daily on the 28th, "This year, Onsan Smelter began operating copper pyrometallurgical facilities as part of the resource circulation business, which is one of the pillars of the 'Troika Drive.' As a result, copper production is expected to increase from around 30,000 tons produced by conventional hydrometallurgy to over 50,000 tons this year, combining pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy." The Troika Drive is a core strategy promoted by Chairman Yoonbum Choi of Korea Zinc since his inauguration in 2022 as a new growth engine, with three pillars: renewable energy and green hydrogen, secondary battery materials, and resource circulation.

Pyrometallurgy is a method that uses fire to melt metals. Raw materials are placed in high-temperature furnaces similar to blast furnaces and boiled to separate the metals. In contrast, hydrometallurgy uses water. Raw materials are soaked in acidic or alkaline chemical solutions to dissolve only the desired metals into a liquid state, and then electricity is applied to filter out the metals.

The hydrometallurgical process that Onsan Smelter has been using is precise, but has limitations in the amount that can be processed at one time. For extracting large quantities of copper from secondary raw materials such as waste electronic products, PCB boards, waste wires, and waste batteries, pyrometallurgy, which can melt large volumes at once, is advantageous. This is the reason for adding a pyrometallurgical facility this time. Precious metals such as gold and silver, which are extracted as byproducts, are collected and produced at the existing precious metal plant.

The automatic casting machine operating at the Refining Plant No. 2 of the Onsan Smelter at Korea Zinc. Korea Zinc

Receiving preprocessed raw materials that have already undergone one stage at the Chicago Hub is far more efficient than directly handling electronic waste at Onsan Smelter. This is because utilizing high-quality, pretreated raw materials is much more effective for maximizing operational efficiency within limited facility capacity.

Kim explained, "If electronic waste is directly introduced into the pyrometallurgical furnace, it can create processing burdens due to unnecessary heat input and increase overseas transportation costs as the volume of materials increases." He added, "On the other hand, if the raw materials have been preprocessed, unnecessary components are removed in advance and converted into high-grade feedstock, which reduces the volume and improves transportation efficiency. When fed into the pyrometallurgical furnace, both processing efficiency and economic viability are enhanced."

Urban mining resource circulation enables the establishment of a stable supply chain. This provides an opportunity to break through in the era of global supply chain conflicts. Compared to the traditional mining of natural resources, extracting minerals from waste electronic and electrical products is both eco-friendly and economical. It becomes even more valuable in unpredictable geopolitical crisis situations.

Kim stated, "The key to the resource circulation business is building a supply chain that can stably and continuously secure large-scale secondary raw materials. Recently, as new mine development requires a lot of time and money, securing secondary raw materials and having the technological competitiveness to utilize them have become even more important." He emphasized, "Onsan Smelter plans to become a world-class eco-friendly smelter by expanding eco-friendly copper production and diversifying metal recovery."

The recent explosive increase in copper demand, driven by the growth in construction of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, is also heightening interest in resource circulation. Copper is a key material used in power grids and distribution facilities for data centers, and electric vehicles use up to four times more copper than internal combustion engine vehicles.

Kim emphasized, "Onsan Smelter plans to expand copper pyrometallurgical facilities in line with market conditions, aiming to increase total copper production to 150,000 tons," adding, "We plan to maximize resource circulation and economic added value."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.