Port Pirie smelter could be centre for e-waste
The Advertiser-6 uur geleden
Port Pirie’s longstanding lead smelter could become an e-waste processing centre following an upgrade expected to be complete later this year.
The smelter is undergoing a $500 million-plus redevelopment, underwritten in part by the State Government, to enable it to process a wider range of metals in addition to lead, zinc, gold and silver.
Government ministers will visit the Nyrstar factory site Monday morning as part of a Country Cabinet trip to the region.
They faced questions from residents at a public forum at the Northern Festival Centre on Sunday night.
Port Pirie Regional Council Mayor John Rohde said the Nyrstar upgrade — which involves a completely new blast furnace — was initially due to be complete in the first quarter of this year.
However, small delays in construction had pushed the final completion date out to around August or September.
The upgraded smelter will deal with precious metals which could be used in solar power and computer components.
It could also process electronic waste, to extract precious metals from old computers and mobile phones, he said.
Mr Rohde said that capability would be “an Australian first for that sort of development”.
“They’re business modelling at the moment. It looks like a very positive possibility,” he said.
“That’s a pretty exciting option.”
Mr Rohde said the smelter could also capitalise on the current attention on energy security with a new capacity to process metals used in solar power technology.
“If Nyrstar can provide the sort of metals that the industry could use, that provides us the opportunity to ... build upon the solar energy industry,” he said.