Smelting Operations

The Auby smelter is located in the town of Auby in the north of France, approximately 35 kilometers south of the city of Lille. It is adjacent to the Canal de la Deule, which connects to the seaports of Calais and Antwerp, and is well connected to several motorways.
The Auby smelter is a mid-scale electrolytic zinc smelter. Unlike other zinc smelting sites, the Auby smelter produces cathodes as finished products for sale to its customers, rather than casting into ingots. Feedstock of both zinc concentrates and zinc secondaries is consumed at the plant using the RLE process to produce zinc cathode. The Auby smelter’s annual production capacity was increased from 130,000 tonnes to 160,000 tonnes during 2009. Currently, the Auby smelter is commissioning an indium recovery circuit to allow it to produce indium metal, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2012.

The Balen smelter is located in the north-east of Belgium, and is a large-scale smelter. The Overpelt plant is situated only 18 km from Balen, consisting of one of Europe’s largest oxide washing facilities, as well as significant alloying and casting facilities.
The Balen smelter is a large-scale zinc smelter with production capacity of approximately 270,000 tonnes of zinc metal per year, making Balen one of the world’s largest zinc smelters in terms of production volume.
The Balen smelter produces zinc from feedstock of both zinc concentrates and recycled zinc secondary feed materials. Balen’s zinc concentrates are sourced from suppliers world-wide.
The Balen and Overpelt operations produce SHG zinc and a range of high value alloy products such as ZAMAK die casting alloy. Balen also produces sulphuric acid, copper cement and Balen Leach Product that contains lead and precious metals and is sold as a raw material to secondary smelters.
http://www.nyrstarbalenoverpelt.be

The Budel zinc smelter is situated in the south-east of The Netherlands near the Belgian border, and is a large-scale smelter with a capacity of 260,000 tonnes of zinc. The Budel zinc plant is one of the most efficient zinc producers in the world.
The Budel smelter produces zinc and zinc alloys predominately from low iron concentrate. Budel’s two key products are SHG and zinc galvanizing alloys. In addition, the site produces cadmium, copper and cobalt cake, sulphuric acid and a saleable product known as (Budel) Leach Product that contains lead and precious metals and is used as a raw material by secondary smelters.
http://www.nyrstarbudel.nl

The Clarksville zinc refinery is located four kilometers southwest of Clarksville, Tennessee, beside the Cumberland River. The primary zinc producer in the U.S and also produces cadmium metal, suphuric acid, copper sulphate, and intermidiate copper cementate, synthetic gypsum and germanium concentrate.

The Clarksville smelter was specifically designed to recover zinc from the high zinc content, low impurity Tennessee Valley zinc concentrates produced by the Tennessee mines.

The Hobart smelter is a large-scale zinc smelter located on the western bank of the Derwent River Estuary in Hobart, Tasmania. The facility uses the RLE process for zinc production. Hobart is closely integrated with the Nyrstar Port Pirie multi-metals smelter, which processes Hobart’s paragoethite by-product as well as a relatively small volume of other leach by-products. The site has operated for more than 90 years and is one of the world’s largest and most efficient zinc producers, with a capacity of 280,000 tonnes of market metal.

​http://nyrstarhobart.com/

Located on the eastern shore of Spencer Gulf in South Australia, approximately 230 kms north of Adelaide, the smelter has been in constant operation for more than 120 years. There is an adjacent dedicated port facility where concentrates are received, with final products dispatched by road and rail.
Port Pirie is an integrated multi-metals recovery plant with the flexibility to process a wide range of lead rich concentrates and smelting industry by-products. Port Pirie is one of the world’s largest primary lead smelting facilities and the third largest silver producer, which allows it to generate significant economies of scale. Port Pirie’s competitive position is enhanced by its ability to produce a range of metals and treat a variety of by-products, together with its focus on supplying the growing markets of Asia, especially China. Port Pirie is strategically linked to the Hobart smelter through flows of by-products such as paragoethite and leach products.