What happens to a load between the dock and the finished material

Receiving

Inbound loads arrive by third party freight arranged by the customer. Each one is weighed and logged on arrival, and assigned a receipt record that follows the material through the plant. Receiving runs Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 3:30pm.

That receipt record is the start of the paper trail. If you need documentation later, this is the number everything else hangs off.

Sorting by chemistry

Material is sorted by chemistry twice, by hand and by an automated x ray based system that reads cell chemistry as it passes. Anything outside our accepted list is pulled before it reaches size reduction.

Size reduction

Sorted alkaline cells are mechanically processed for size reduction. Opening the cells liberates the internal chemistry from the steel and brass around it, which is what makes the next stage possible.

This is the stage that makes the sorting worth doing. A single lithium cell that reaches a shredder is a fire, which is why nothing moves forward unverified.

Separation and recovery

The shredded stream is separated into four fractions: zinc manganese concentrate, steel, brass, and a small residual fraction that cannot be sold on as product. Each output is collected, graded and moved to its buyer.

• Zinc manganese concentrate, the primary output, sold to downstream refiners and fertiliser feedstock buyers
• Clean shredded steel, separated magnetically and sold into standard ferrous scrap markets
• Non ferrous brass current collectors, graded and sold to metal buyers
• A small residual fraction, managed and disposed of responsibly

Across a processed load we recover 85 to 95% of incoming material by weight as marketable product.