Project nominated for the Excellence in sustainability Steelie Award 2020
Since the 1970s, a slag dump has been accumulating near the steelmaking plant on the left bank of the Voronezh River. At that time, blast furnace slag was simply poured onto the ground at a dedicated site away from residential buildings and was gradually processed for road construction application. Sometimes in the process of slag pouring, even multitonne slag pots were dropped into the dump. Solid waste from all production shops was dumped there on a regular basis.
The decision to recycle the dump at NLMK was made in 2018, and since February 2019, about 500,000 tonnes of materials have been processed from the dump every month. In July 2020 the slag dump was completely recycled and reclaimed.
The project was primarily aimed at the recycling of waste accumulated at the slag dump. The dump, covering an area of 25 hectares, had almost 6 million tonnes of accumulated waste.
Almost 350,000 tonnes of scrap were recovered as a result of processing of the accumulated 5 Mt of slag dump. The recovered metal was used to replace other iron-containing raw materials in blast furnace operations, thus reducing the consumption of iron ore.
Waste materials obtained through magnetic separation were also put to use. The materials remaining after the recovery of iron were utilised for construction projects at the site of the plant and in the city of Lipetsk, where the plant is located.
The economic impact of the project was estimated at RUB 1,677 million (EBITDA), about USD 21.4 million.
The environmental benefits include avoided indirect CO2 emissions to reclamation and landscaping of the adjacent territory. The project has improved the living environment of the residents