As Global Head Technology and Continuous Improvement, Gregory Belland's goal is to make Nyrstar increasingly performant in big and small steps.
Gregory Belland knows the world of metal. Literally. Before the Canadian settled at the Dutch Nyrstar site in Budel, he worked in his native country, but also in Mali, the United States and Australia. A chemical engineer by training, he moved from R&D for nuclear projects to the metal sector, where he held technical, executive, commercial and managerial positions.
Circumstances led Belland to look for a new job. ‘I've been in the industry so long that I'm convinced I have zinc running through my veins,’ he laughs. Like a shoemaker, he has stuck to his last and since neither borders nor oceans were a barrier for him, he ended up in Budel. And working for Nyrstar, a world leader in zinc and lead, was a logical choice.
Resounding name
Of course there are differences between all those countries. First and foremost the cultural, but also technical differences. ‘Small differences’, Belland emphasises, ‘because in the end it all comes down to the same thing. In the mine they produce a zinc ore concentrate, containing between 50 and 60 percent zinc. This is shipped to refineries to extract pure zinc and sell it to customers.’
On the other side of the world too, what was then called Union Minière (which later became Umicore and then part of Nyrstar in 2007) was a household name. ‘Many of their technologies were exported. Today I work with people who helped spread those technologies around the world.’
If the industry average is 90 percent energy efficient, we want to be above that. We want to be world class.
Gregory Belland,
Global Head Technology and Continuous Improvement at Nyrstar
No ivory tower
‘Corporate culture is a reflection of the people in the company, their values and how they treat each other,’ Belland continues. ‘Nyrstar is the first company I’ve worked for where the headquarters is on the production site itself and not in an ivory tower somewhere in a capital city. Here it’s right in the middle of the action.
It’s not a top-down organisation and that brings challenges, but also creates opportunities.’
As Global Head Technology and Continuous Improvement, the Canadian is engaged in the constant optimisation of processes and technologies. For this he immerses himself in R&D, but also sets up collaborations with other companies and universities. All with a view to optimising Nyrstar. The way the company’s organised is an asset here.
‘We’re not very hierarchical, but work in a matrix organisation. This gives me plenty of contact with colleagues from outside my own team. We work together with project teams, implementation teams and local site teams.’
Good for the environment
The diversity of his tasks is evident from the list of projects he and his team of six are working on. ‘We extract as much zinc as possible from the raw material entering the plant. The more recovery, the less loss. That’s good for the business, but also for the environment.’
Belland and his team are also working on energy efficiency. ‘Certainly today that’s something we have to think about. We consume a lot of electricity. So every little bit we can do to avoid wasting electricity counts. If the industry average is 90 percent energy efficiency, we want to be above that. We want to be world class and will therefore always push and shove to do that little bit better.’
