In a major advance for sustainable mineral production, the "Alcoa Portland SPL Process" developed jointly by Portland Aluminium, Alcoa, Ausmelt and CSIRO renders the hazardous waste harmless and at the same time produces two commercial by-products.

Aluminium smelters worldwide produce about half a million tones a year of the toxic byproduct which, in many cases, simply has to be stored on site because local regulations prevent its disposal in landfill.

Now the Australian breakthrough has turned what was an intractable problem into economically useful products.

Aluminium fluoride produced by the process will directly replace a portion of the expensive imported aluminium fluoride used in the smelting process - significantly reducing purchase costs for this material.

Another product, "synthetic sand", has received Environment Protection Authority approval for unrestricted use and is expected to be used road-making and concrete production.

SPL project manager, Mr Ken Mansfield, says the company is delighted with the outcome.

"Treating SPL is a costly process, but achieving such an environmental breakthrough, where the by-products partially offset the processing costs, is an outstanding result."

Mr Mansfield said Portland Aluminium had 75,000 tonnes of SPL stored safely in secure containers and specially ventilated buildings. "But we couldn't go on storing it for ever, so in 1989 we started seeking suitable treatment options. That was when we approached CSIRO, to comb the world for a process that would meet our environmental, technical and economic goals".

"When it became clear there wasn't anything suitable worldwide, we began our own joint research, which led in 1992 to our trialling the Ausmelt technology."

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Contact: Rosie Schmedding
Rosie.Schmedding@csiro.au
61-2-6276-6520
CSIRO Australia
31-May-2002