Recycling Technologies for Metal Processing - An Australian Perspective

Following the trends around the world in the 1990's, Australia has been promoting recycling as a means to reduce wastes and at the same time improve the economics of metal processing. Of significance to the metal processing industry is the recycling of steel and aluminium, mostly from cans collected from households. The recycling of cyanide during gold processing has also been evaluated extensively, involving many R&D activities currently conducted in several laboratories and commercial plants in Australia. This paper presents an overview of the above issues, evaluating facts and data collected on metal recycling. The technologies currently developed and evaluated for cyanide recycling are also discussed.