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OUR COMPANY
Argensus – Next generation metal recovery.
A milestone for the circular economy in the Zinc-Industry.
A a waste of precious resources and also a burden for the environment :
At least 150 million tons of residues from zinc production are buried in landfills worldwide and are thus unused.
Every year, several million tons are added from current production.
The capacities of the landfills currently in use are coming to an end. New ones are usually no longer approved for environmental reasons, at least in Europe.
The dilemma:
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Up to 15 percent of high-value metals (zinc, lead, copper, silver, gold, indium, other rare metals) are buried in each landfill and cannot be recovered economically.
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They are therefore not available for securing many important raw materials (e.g. for the energy transition).
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The contents of the residues has a negative impact to the environment.
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And at the same time, they cause higher costs for the companies responsible.
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Up to 15 per cent of high-value metals (zinc, lead, copper, silver, gold) are buried in each landfill and cannot be recovered.
Argensus has the solution.
Argensus has developed a zero-waste recycling technology that creates value through the sustainable recovery of metals AND solves the environmental problem.
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The contents of the landfill and the quality of the production residues are tested by Argensus at its own expense for their economic viability at pilot scale.
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Argensus invests in the recycling facilities and sets them up on site at its own expense. The industrial partner hands over the landfilled and ongoing residues to Argensus for further processing.
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Landfills are fully reprocessed using a new process.
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Ongoing production waste can additionally be fed into the recycling loop. In this case, landfill is no longer required.
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On average, around 100,000 tons of metals can be recovered from 1 million tons of residues.
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The remaining 900,000 tons of landfill material are also recycled: Half of this is used to produce sand and half to produce gypsum - both high-quality and increasingly sought-after by-products.
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This significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the metals and by-products produced compared to the primary production chain.
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By recovering metals and by-products from this unused source, Argensus is heavily supporting raw material supply reliability in Europe.
OUR COMPANY
OUR TEAM
The core team of Argensus consists of experienced professionals from various disciplines and is already working intensively on the implementation.
The core team looks back on many years of successful cooperation in many similar projects.
All the skills required for the success of this project can be found in our team: business development, technology, construction and operation, financing, stakeholder management and communication.
Over the past 15 years, our research and development team has already carried out R&D projects in process development and – optimization, mainly in the field of “recycling, reduction, and avoiding of metallurgical production residues”, for more than 50 BlueChip companies.
OUR TEAM
OUR EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE
Argensus is the result of 15 years of intensive work.
The goal: to reprocess and recycle old landfills for residues from zinc production and avoid new landfills.
This idea has been preoccupied the metallurgical research community for a long time - in particular two leading experts from the University of Leoben (Austria), who have been involved in the research and development work of Argensus from the very beginning.
At the same time, calls from industry for such a solution grew louder and louder.
And thus, work on a zero-waste solution began more than 10 years ago. Since then, much has been invested and much has been achieved:
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Pre-evaluation of two dozen of landfills worldwide. The result: more than three-quarters are rich enough in valuable components to make recycling worthwhile.
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By investing several million Euros of own funds, a recycling process was developed, allowing to recover 100 per cent of the dump content. A special focus was put on sustainability and the lowest possible carbon footprint of the products.
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Activities included hundreds of tests from laboratory- to pilot-scale as well as the construction and adaptation of pilot test facilities at the Leoben (Austria) Materials Testing Center.
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The process was verified and is now ready for the market.
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First site developments are already under negotiation.
Our unique zero-waste recycling technology creates value through the sustainable recovery of metals and building materials AND solves the environmental problem.
OUR EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE
WHY ARGENSUS?
From industrial waste landfill to valuable material deposit:
We convert unused waste from zinc production into versatile metals and valuable by-products.
Argensus relieves landfill owners of the financial burden of landfilling and frees them up to focus on their core business.
By processing the raw materials from those dumps locally (which is made possible for the first time through us), we massively reduce the costs of raw material extraction. Argensus thus makes a substantial contribution to reducing CO2 emissions and raw material supply reliability in Europe.
At the same time, we are freeing both landfill operators and local residents and, above all, the environment from the legacy of landfill operations.
A milestone for the circular economy in the Zinc industry.
WHY ARGENSUS?
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Until now, the only option from an economic point of view was to landfill residues from zinc production. An efficient zero-waste recycling technology has been lacking - worldwide.
Argensus is now filling this gap.
With our new and unique process, we can not only recover valuable metals and by-products from continuously produced residues but also recycle the landfills and therefore eliminate their environmental impact.
This sustainable process developed by us can be titled as "simultaneous metal recovery".
This means: After a thermal pre-treatment step, the process enables the simultaneous recovery of various metals in a metal bath and in the filter dust.
The extraction of further valuable materials (sand and gypsum) is realized in pre- and post-treatment steps.
Metal extraction efficiencies and product qualities are very high in this process.
OUR TECHNOLOGY
WHAT WE DO FOR OUR INDUSTRY-PARTNERS
Our industry-partners appreciate the value we create for them in many ways.
Zinc smelters and landfill operators benefit from positive financial and environmental impacts:
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Argensus avoids new landfills because continuously generated residues are directly recycled and converted into valuable products.
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Argensus excavates the existing landfills - the sites are fully recultivated and can be used for other purposes.
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Argensus helps to remove historic legacies and resolves potential conflicts with local stakeholders.
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Argensus ensures that the costs of landfill operation are eliminated.
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Argensus creates balance sheet relief for provisions
Metal producers and traders benefit from a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of the metals and by-products produced compared to the primary production chain.
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As a local supplier, we avoid global transport routes and offer CO2-reduced metals.
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We supply gypsum and sand in a raw material market that is becoming increasingly scarce worldwide and also avoid long-distance transports of these products with high volumes and weights.
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We support raw material supply reliability in Europe by using local sources for the production of metals, gypsum ans sand.
WHAT WE DO FOR OUR INDUSTRY-PARTNERS
OUR UNDERSTANDING
OF SUBSTAINABILITY
"The world changes by your example, not by your opinion." - Paulo Coelho.
This sentence by Paul Coelho reflects our understanding of sustainability in a special way:
We do not only think that the CO2 footprint in metal production should be reduced.
We significantly reduce the CO2 footprint of the produced metals and by-products (compared to the entire primary production chain), for example by avoiding long-distance transportation.
We do not only think that zinc production residues should be recycled.
We stand for "zero waste": 100 percent of the landfilled material is converted into reusable products. The landfill site is fully remediated and can be used for other purposes.
We do not only believe that new landfills should be avoided.
We treat production residues immediately - so no new landfills are needed.
OUR UNDERSTANDING OF SUBSTAINABILITY
CONTACT
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