OAO Sinara Pipe Plant (a part of Pipe Metallurgical Company, TMK) came up with the pilot samples of high quality iron ore raw stuff obtained from cinder and sludge; the characteristics of this stuff are comparable with the best kinds of iron ore mix and pellets produced in Russia.

Ferrous metallurgical enterprises tend to accumulate most of their iron-containing waste on special sites rather than recycle it in the production process, which affects the environment badly. Thus the fact that Sinara Pipe Plant and Yekaterinburg-based Specialized Design Office for Mechanization & Automation developed a special technology this year that makes it possible to produce iron ore raw stuff right where the cinder is collected, eliminating the need to transport it to mining and processing enterprises, is an important event for this branch of industry.

To get the iron ore raw material samples, that is, the counterparts of iron ore fluxed pellets, some fine cinder from the waste disposal plants was used, as well as the sludge from the etching divisions of the energy department’s treatment facilities.

‘The development of this technology is a new, significant step on the way to switching to a waste-free production process. The application of this new technology will allow us not only to enhance the profitability of fine cinder and process the waste from the waste disposal plants but also to reduce the amount of waste in the enterprise’s sludge catcher, which means the negative impact on the environment will be reduced,’ says Sinara Pipe Plant’s Managing Director Sergey Chetverikov.