Urban Metals Pilot Plant
1. Project Overview
Together with IHC Mining, Urban Metals has developed a modular plant called the Urban Metals Pilot Plant. The plant is intended for the recovery of fine Heavy Non-Ferrous metals from waste streams such as WtE bottomash (IBA), but could also be used for other waste streams such as fine dust from ASR or e-waste. The plant consists of various gravity separation devices which are combined into a gravity circuit, with the focus on recovery of metals between 0-2 mm. The plant enables IBA processors to recover valuable metals over a long period of time, which provides a good insight in robustness of the technology and the feasibility of the recovery of metals.
2. Scope of Work
The UMPP is a fully automated plant and can operate stand‑alone or be integrated into an existing processing plant. It combines complementary mining technologies to achieve the highest possible grade at the highest yield for copper, silver, and gold — even at sub‑ppm concentrations.
The plant has a nominal throughput of 4 tons/hour of 0–2 mm dry solids and requires approximately 7 m³/hour of process water. It complies with all EU norms and standards for safe operation in an industrial environment.
3. Results and Application
The demonstration plant could be rented for a longer duration with a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 6 months. During that period Urban Metals will support the client with training of the operators, operational plant support and service and maintenance.
The demonstration plant will produces a heavy metal non ferrous concentrate, which can be sold directly to a smelter.
In this way 3 main project risks are reduced compared by small scale laboratory test work:
1) Testing over a prolonged period will damp out fluctuations in the composition of the material
2) Larger bulk volumes to be tested will eliminate mistakes in analyses
3) The pilot plant process is representative to the full scale industrial process
