Global Atomic holds a 49% stake in Befesa Silvermet Turkey, SL (BST), with Befesa S.A, a metallurgical company with operations in aluminium slag recycling and steel dust recycling, holding the remaining 51%. Befesa SA is the operator of BST and is listed on the Frankfurt exchange (FRA: BFSA).

Milestones

Q2 2021
First full year of new mill operations
2020
First full year of production
Q4 2019
Commission new Waelz Kiln
2010
Befesa Joint Venture
2009
Started operations in Turkey

BST has capacity to process 110Ktpa of Electric Arc Furnace Dust (EAFD), which can produce 50-60 Mlbpa of payable zinc concentrate via the Waelz process. The Waelz process is a method to recover zinc from metallurgical waste, using a long, slightly inclined and refractory-lined rotary kiln.
The kiln is fed with pellets containing a mixture of EAF dust (c.25% average zinc), carbon (coke and athracite) and lime at a temperature of c.1200°C. As the feed material slowly moves down the kiln, volatile elements, mainly zinc, are transformed to gas and elements are oxidised to form a so-called Waelz oxide (WOX). WOX is captured and cooled and further processed with soda-ash to produce double-washed WOX, which is sold as a zinc concentrate (with a 65-70% zinc concentration) to smelters.