Metal industry
Deep expertise for the metallurgical sector
The mining and metals industry plays a significant role in the transition to a low-carbon future.
Minerals and metals are essential building blocks in a wide variety of clean energy technologies, from wind turbines, nuclear power and solar panels to electric vehicles and battery storage. The metallurgical sector processes the extracted ore and provides the necessary materials for the construction of the future world such as steel, aluminum, nickel, copper, silver, gold or lithium and countless more.
The mining and metals sector is very energy intensive. Melting and manipulating raw ores and metals require large amounts of energy. Rethinking the extraction, refinement, and recycling processes is necessary to improve sustainability and reduce carbon intensity and investments in renewable energy and innovative low-carbon technologies will be required.
A partner throughout the investment lifetime
We use our engineering ability to optimise technical processes across the lifetime of mining and metals operations to decrease emissions, reduce the CO2 footprint, and increase overall efficiency and sustainability.
AFRY's capabilities cover the whole process development phase all the way from pilot-testing through technology selection and detail engineering, as well as start-up and commissioning services during the project implementation phase.
Our range of knowledge and expertise positions us as a dependable partner for the development of your project. We have technology specialists with considerable industry experience that can assist you with any manufacturing process, whether hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical. AFRY’s unique combination of competences also cover fundamental understanding of the end-uses of the products e.g. in cars, or in construction materials or in electricity transmission.
Green Steel is decarbonising the steel industry
There are options to reduce the industry sector-related emissions and decarbonise production processes, for example by replacing carbon-based reductants in ironmaking with green hydrogen.
As an example, AFRY is active in fossil-free Green Steel projects that are developing technologies to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of steel produced by more than 90%. With the technologies in use today, a tonne of steel produced means almost two tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The target with fossil-free steelmaking is to eliminate CO2 emissions in the value chain for iron- and steelmaking by replacing coal with fossil-free electricity and green hydrogen.
Through our services, we help clients in shaping and developing their ideas into technically, environmentally, and financially viable solutions.
Improving material efficiency and going circular
Improving material efficiency and exploring new uses for by-products, striving for zero waste, and increasing the recyclability of raw materials, are all critical components of the move to more circular material flows. With the traditional boundaries of industries blurring, circular economy also fuels new business models and partnerships for the industry. Recycling enables the creation of new goods with a far smaller carbon footprint; therefore, it is vital to change present practices.
The fact however remains, that even if we were able to recycle 100% of the minerals and metals extracted, this would not be sufficient to fulfill future material need, and mining for virgin raw materials continues to be necessary to meet society's expanding demand.
Transition to more circular material flows needs to take place
The mining and metals industry has several opportunities to increase resource efficiency. For instance, the full potential of waste as raw material has not yet been realised.
We are committed to sustainable mining and metals
For AFRY, sustainable mining means adopting a comprehensive approach to ensuring the long-term sustainability of mining operations, as well as associated downstream beneficiation processes.
Our key competencies:
- Feasibility studies with various CAPEX and OPEX accuracies
- Health, safety and environmental studies, permitting and EIA support
- Multi-disciplinary engineering services
- EPCM (engineering, procurement, project and construction management) services
- Technical consulting, Management consulting services, including technical due diligence studies and process optimisations
Interested in our offering? Contact us!
