Steel Mill Liner Recycling Initiative

A customer’s site was burdened with over 2,000 tonnes of used and outdated mill liners. The primary challenge they faced was the limited storage capacity for critical mill liner stock, as more than 10 acres of the site is occupied by unusable mill liners.

Although the customer had an existing vendor that provided scrap metal buyback services, the vendor only purchased the scrap when it could be sold on at a favourable value. As a result, the site remained congested with unusable scrap liners until the vendor could obtain a favourable price for the material. This dependency on the sale value limited the vendor's ability to offer the customer a cost-effective solution for the ongoing removal of the scrap mill liners.

The Bradken team worked closely with the customer to develop a scrap buyback credit agreement. Through this collaboration, Bradken paid a fair market price for scrap metal based on the intrinsic value of alloy content of the liners, enabling the customer to transition from their existing scrap vendor to Bradken.

The new agreement not only provided a higher financial return to the customer compared to the previous vendor, but also reinforced a strong commitment to sustainability, environmental responsibility, and the Circular Economy initiative.

Bradken and the customers commitment to the environment and sustainability are closely aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through collaboration with our customers, we are further advancing our commitment to recycling and reducing environmental impact with SDGs Goals; 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action), and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), together we are aiming to achieve shared sustainability outcomes.

As a result of these efforts, we will assist the customer in successfully removing 1,200 tons of outdated mill liners from an area designated for the storage of critical stock. In the process, the customer will receive approximately $1.2 million (AUD) in buyback credit which could be offset against the future purchase of new mill liners.

The copper / uranium mine continues to adhere to stringent cleaning protocols for all materials removed from the site before disposal, and the remaining 1,200 tonnes is in the process of being decontaminated before the material can be removed by Bradken and recycled.

Recycling steel by returning it to foundries for remelting to make new castings can reduce energy consumption by up to 74% compared to producing steel from virgin iron ore sources.

By assisting the customer to initiate the scrap clean-up, the customer has now been able to submit their own internal Wave sustainability initiative to contribute to their Environmental and Sustainability Goals.