Metalnewsnet 7 May:

KGHM Ecoren has become the first company in Europe to produce rhenium from its own source, with the opening of a metallic rhenium pellet factory in Legnica, Poland. The pellets are produced from ammonium perrhenate (APR) delivered from Ecoren's hydrometallurgy division in city Glogow, where the APR is produced from waste pumped directly from KGHM's neighbouring copper smelter, which sits above a 1.2km deep copper mine. The APR, in a white powder form, is sieved, ground and put in a furnace for reduction. The resulting metallic rhenium powder goes through a high-pressure machine to form pellets, which are returned to the furnace and sintered to increase density and resistance. The plant can process 5 tpy of APR, producing 3.5 tpy of rhenium pellets, but Ecoren also supplies rhenium in metallic powder form, as well as the raw APR. The process is part of Ecoren's wider recycling strategy, through which it aims to boost recovery of several base and minor metals.

"The first direction is recycling from industrial waste such as rhenium," vp Bohdan Pecuszok told MB at Ecoren's headquarters in Lubin, Poland on Wednesday. "Having examined all the places in KGHM where rhenium is a product, we're sure we can increase production and we'd like to use all the sources," he said. "The second area will be nickel and cobalt recycling in chemical form. We're starting to build an installation and hope to be producing by August or September next year. We want to make more extensive use of this installation; there is a tendering process going on at the moment," Pecuszok said. A contractor for the installation should be appointed in about a week, according to Pecuszok.

 The first stage of production will be nickel sulphate, with capacity estimated at around 2,200 tpy. Ecoren also plans to recycle zinc and cadmium from batteries, but said it is too early to say what capacity will be, or what grades of material would be produced. The company will try to produce metals to accommodate the demands of specific clients, Pecuszok said. "

Another goal is the recovery of metals including copper and gold from printed plates, like motherboards, for example," Grzegorz Bigosinski, sales director at Ecoren, told MB. "This ties in with regulations requiring producers in Poland to increase recovery of those metals." Rhenium demand is forecast to increase due to growing demand for aeroplanes, a major rhenium application, in Asian markets, according to Ecoren chairman Mariusz Bober. "According to the forecast, 30,000 aeroplanes will be produced in the world by 2024, of which a considerable amount will be sold to Asian customers," he said in a statement. "Considering the above, the development of our activities based on rhenium compounds is indeed very prospective," he said.