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Nickel magazine, Mar. 02
ELECTRONIC SCRAP ;The potential is great for much more nickel to be recovered from obsolete computer equipment, such as this at MicroMetallics in Jan Jose, California. 
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-- In our high-tech world, the amount of electronic equipment tossed on the scrap heap is staggering. In
the United States alone, only 14% of the 24 million computers that became obsolete in 1999 were recycled or
donated. Three hundred million computer monitors were sold in the U.S. since 1980, but just 1.7 million were
recycled in 1997. In addition, some 70% of consumer electronics products end up in landfills. Worldwide, the
total tonnage poised to enter the waste stream is growing astronomically.
All this, despite the fact that a 60-pound computer contains a half-pound of nickel, according to a 1996
study by Microelectronic Computers.
No wonder, then, that Noranda has targeted metals recycling as a growth industry. Already, a third of the roughly 150,000 tonnes of metal-bearing recyclables it processes from four U.S. recycling plants and from companies in 17 other countries is derived from electronic equipment.
Nickel represents a small percentage of the metals that Noranda recovers (the ones that generate the most revenue are copper, gold, silver, platinum and palladium), yet it, along with nickel recovered in the same refinery operation from virgin copper concentrate, is used to produce about 1,700 tonnes of nickel sulphate (NiSO4) a year.
Three of Noranda's U.S. facilities belong to its wholly owned subsidiary, MicroMetallics. Every month, the MicroMetallics plant in San Jose, California, receives, samples and processes about 500 tonnes of higher-grade electronic scrap from manufacturing facilities. Another plant in Roseville, California, which operates under a co-operative agreement with electronics manufacturer Hewlett Packard, processes 1,200 to 2,000 tonnes of end-of-life electronic components per month. A third MicroMetallics facility, also in alliance with Hewlett Packard, opened in Nashville, Tennessee in 2001 and will ultimately process and recycle 1,200 tonnes of end-of-life-electronics per month, including computers, printers and copiers. A fourth plant, Noranda Sampling, is in Rhode Island; every month it processes 500 tonnes of higher-grade scrap, such as truckloads of circuit boards.
After sorting and mechanical separation, a fraction rich in copper and precious metals is shipped to Noranda's Horne Smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Canada.
About three per cent of the material is stainless steel. Some of the recovered nickel will report to a stainless steel fraction, which will be returned to a stainless steel producer. Other nickel will come out in the copper fraction as, for example, contact points.
The nickel in the copper scrap follows the copper, which leaves the Horne Smelter as copper anodes. They are sent to Noranda's copper refinery, where they are electrolytically refined. Nickel is picked up in the electrolytic bath as an impurity, and is then recovered from the bath in the form of nickel sulphate.
The potential for more nickel to be recovered from computer equipment is great, especially as legally mandated and voluntary recycling initiatives around the world increase.
"This is a business we have targeted for growth," says Cindy Thomas, Noranda's manager of recycling market research. "There are a number of initiatives globally that are forcing end-of-life recycling of electronic equipment by law."
Photo: NORANDA INC.
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Cindy Thomas |
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