Choosing a deep-processing route
Route selection is decided by four inputs, and the equipment is the last thing to talk about. Get the four wrong and the best machine in the world wil
01
Where the money actually goes
| Cost line | Mechanical separation | Thermal route | Hydrometallurgical route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Process equipment | Moderate | High | Moderate |
| Extraction and abatement | Low | High — usually comparable to the process equipment | Moderate — fume control over reaction vessels |
| Effluent treatment | None | Low to moderate | High — frequently the largest single line |
| Reagents and consumables | Low — wear parts | Low to moderate — fuel and burner parts | High and recurring |
| Energy | Low | High and continuous | Moderate |
| Assay and laboratory | Occasional external | Required for oil and residue | Essential and continuous |
| Permitting effort | Low | Substantial | Substantial |
| Insurance and safety case | Standard | Significant — combustible gas and hot solids | Significant — corrosive and toxic reagents |
Comparative, not quantitative. The purpose is to show which line items dominate in each route, so that a budget can be challenged before it is committed.
02
The four things most often left out
- Abatement. Any thermal route produces an off-gas. Extraction ducting, filtration, scrubbing, fans, stacks and the monitoring that goes with them are part of the project, not accessories.
- Effluent. A leaching route produces liquid waste: spent liquor, wash water, neutralisation sludge. Treatment, storage, permitted disposal and the analysis that documents it are recurring obligations.
- Assay. You cannot sell on specification without it, cannot demonstrate a permit condition without it, and cannot control a process without it. A shared external laboratory is a starting point; a project of any scale needs routine in-house capability.
- Operating discipline. A chemical or thermal process run by improvisation produces off-spec output, effluent excursions and safety incidents. The training, procedures and supervision are a real cost line.
03
The working capital nobody budgets
Deep processing is slower than dismantling. Material has to be fed at a controlled rate, reacted or heated, cooled, analysed and only then sold. That means inventory sits on site for far longer — feedstock waiting to be processed, material in process, and finished product waiting for assay and dispatch.
For a plant doing several hundred tonnes a month, the value of that inventory is a real capital requirement, and it is almost never in the equipment budget. Add the cost of holding reagents and the lead time of consumables from abroad, and a project that looked comfortably funded can run short of cash while operating perfectly well.
04
How we would compare two routes
- 01
Establish the output, not the process
Which product do you intend to sell, and who buys it? Everything else is a consequence of that answer.
- 02
Cost the permit first
Ask what conditions the regulator is likely to impose. Those conditions translate directly into equipment and operating cost, and they can eliminate a route before anything else is considered.
- 03
Cost the recurring items before the capital items
Reagents, energy, abatement consumables, assay and effluent treatment. A route with a lower capital cost and a higher recurring cost is often the worse choice.
- 04
Add the working capital
Inventory days, reagent stock and the lead time of consumables. This is the line that most often decides whether a project is fundable.
- 05
Stress the market side
What happens to the case if the metal price falls a third, or if your glass buyer tightens the specification? If the answer is that the plant stops, the plant is mis-designed.
05
Our own view
Build the core economics on aluminium and glass
We would rather sell a thermal or hydrometallurgical line than not, but we would rather a customer succeed. Our advice is consistent: make the dismantling and separation stages produce clean aluminium and glass that sell in your market, make that business work on its own, and treat every stage beyond it as an upgrade that has to justify itself against its own costs.
A plant built that way survives a fall in metal prices, a tightening of a glass specification and a delay in a permit. A plant built the other way around does not.
Challenge your own numbers
Send us the cost structure you have assumed. We will tell you which lines look optimistic for the route you are considering, and which ones we would expect to be larger.
FAQ
Questions
What is the most expensive part of a deep-processing project?
In most jurisdictions it is not the process equipment. Abatement for a thermal route and effluent treatment for a chemical route are frequently the largest line items, and between them they are usually what decides whether the permit is obtainable.
Why does working capital matter so much?
Because deep processing is slower than dismantling. Feedstock, material in process and finished product all sit on site for longer, and reagent stocks have to be held. The value tied up in that inventory is a real capital requirement that equipment budgets routinely omit.
Do I need my own laboratory?
You need reliable access to one. At low volume an external laboratory can work; at any scale, routine in-house capability for the measurements that control your process and document your output is cheaper than the consequences of not having it.
Should I add deep processing from day one?
Usually not. Build the mechanical front end, prove the fractions and the outlets, sell the concentrate if you produce one, and add thermal or chemical stages only when a specific fraction has an outlet that justifies the capital and the recurring cost.
Send us the module mix and the through-put
Tell us what arrives at your gate and what has to leave. The engineering team replies with the station configuration, the scope boundary and the information still missing before drawings start.
- Modules — framed single-glass, double-glass, frameless, thin film, mixed
- Condition — intact, or a meaningful share damaged or bent
- Through-put — modules per hour or t/h, and your shift pattern
- Output — which fractions you sell or store, and to what specification
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