Sidenor 2020 Corporate Report

51 examples is our will to reuse and valorise the auxiliary materials used in the iron and steel industry. This is the case of the iron and steel aggregate obtained from the valorization of black slag waste. For this product, we have various EC-marking certificates which include its use as granular layers, bituminous mixtures and concretes. As an example, in 2020, over 7,000 tonnes of steel aggregate were used as a filler in the civil work executed at Basauri for the modernisation of our rolling facilities. Furthermore, Sidenor has agreements with various companies in order to contribute, with its steel aggregate, to the construction of roads (over 40,000 tonnes of aggregate in the last few years). Likewise, Sidenor is a partner in the BIRBALAS project, whose final objective will be to develop new railway ballast and sub-ballast products from electric arc furnace slags and thus open a new path for the management of this waste as well as ensure, at the same time, compliance with specifications which guarantee its functionality as well as environmental safety and adequacy. Along the same lines, we have been able to valorise a large part of our waste by means of innovative practices. White slag is used in cement production processes; steel mill dust is used in the zinc recovery industry; and mill scale is used in sintering plants for blast furnace iron and steel processes. In this sense, and following our strategic orientation towards the development of real measures leading to a systemic shift to circular economy, a working group was created in 2020, with the aim to reuse MgO and isostatic refractory waste at Sidenor’s Basauri plant. The group started using this by-product resulting from tundish tipping as the bottom side of the white slag cone, thus reusing over 85% of the total MgO and isostatic white slag and refractory waste generated.