Kennecott Copper: Reducing Waste

Reducing Waste

Kennecott Utah Copper is committed to protecting the environment and conserving resources and energy. Throughout our facilities, we minimize the use of hazardous materials and reduce solid and hazardous wastes. Recycling is a way of life at KUC. Not only do we recycle water many times over, more than half of the copper produced goes through some form of recycling before being sold.

Kennecott’s modernized Smelter and Refinery have increased metal recovery and reduced waste generation. The Smelter, which recovers waste heat from smelting and acid-making processes to co-generate 60 percent of its electrical power needs, captures 99.95 percent of the sulfur in the concentrate and converts it to saleable sulfuric acid. During the smelting process, iron in the concentrate is converted to slag, which is reprocessed to recover residual copper and then slurried to Tailings Impoundment. Much of the slag was used as a base for the new North Tailings Impoundment.

The Smelter’s Hydrometallurgical (Hydromet) Plant, unique in the United States, recovers metals from materials that were once wasted. The Hydromet Plant recovers metals by recycling large volumes of dust that once were collected and shipped to permit hazardous waste disposal facilities. The Plant increases metal recovery, minimizes re-handling and loss of potentially valuable materials, and reduces waste that requires disposal.

The reduction of waste is not only good for the environment; it’s good for business.