In 10 years Sredneuralsky Copper Works has processed over a quarter (26%) of metal slag, accumulated during 78 years of operation.
According to the SUMZ chief environment engineer Marina Sycheva, each year the processing factory produces over 60 thousand tons of copper concentrate, which the works uses in its manufacture. Another product of slag processing is construction sand, used by cement works and in the manufacture of construction materials.
The SUMZ factory has been processing copper slag since 1994. In 2007-2009 it was reconstructed. Now the factory can process 100% of all current slag (over 500 thousand tons). Old, accumulated wastes are decreasing with the same speed. All in all over 20 million tons of slag have been processed so far. (Ukrainian metal)