One step clossr to Europe with Urbano Rudarstvo – Bozic i Sinovi company plans to build waste zinc dust treatment facility

The first and the only company in Serbia with a license for the export of dangerous waste dust is Pancevo-based Bozic i sinovi company. The Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection approved this company export of technological ballast which is a steel billets casting process product of Sremska Mitrovica-based Sirmium steel. During the next year, they will export waste to Bulgaria where the processing will be carried out in the sections of the company there.

Representatives of the Bozic i sinovi company say they were waiting for a long time to obtain a permit and that the procedure took a couple of months but that thanks to administration and the relevant Ministry, the process speeded up and they are now the first and the only company ion Serbia which has a license for export of this kind of waste.

According to Jovica Bozic, a strategic manager and an owner of Bozic i sinovi, the company’s objective is not to export this kind of waste, regardless of the fact that it is hazardous waste.

- Our objective is to apply inertization of the hazardous material from the waste which exist sporadically, depending on the foundry input. They are contained in hazardous waste in a small percentage but there are large quantities of metal we actually want to valorize. For instance, dust contains more than 30% of zinc as well as minor quantities of nonferrous metals.

(Jovica Bozic)

With respect to that, Bozic announced they are planning a Greenfield investment, i.e. a new facility at location in Pancevo or Sremska Mitrovica which will deal with treatment of this kind of waste but other kinds as well such as catalysts from passenger cars. He did not want to reveal details about the future company but it is known that the company will be named Urbano rudarstvo and that it will operate within the Bozic i sinovi company. A couple of foreign companies from Italy, England and USA are interested in the cooperation with Bozic i sinovi with respect to this project so the whole story could become international.

What the General Manager at Bozic i sinovi, Nikola Egic, fears most is our complicated administrative procedures, lack of understanding of technological solutions of pyrometallurgy processes which will be present through equipment operating at the HTMR process High Temperature Metals Recovery. Fear of the term “hazardous waste treatment” will particularly appear, first of all, in local self-governances, even in Pancevo until the moment Serbia harmonizes its legislation with EU waste management legislation. Until then, unfortunately, foreign investors will not come. It is essential that administration has minimal and maximal limits of certain potential emissions, based on international agreements (the Basel Convention) and the basic principles of adequate waste management.

(Nikola Egic)

As they in Pancevo-based company point out, a part of the technological process should be used in the treatment of these kinds of hazardous waste in the planned facility of Urbano rudarstvo was tested in laboratories of the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Belgrade.

Even with all those problems, the Bozic i sinovi company believes the both local authorities and the Ministry of Energy, Development and Environment will understand the project They have already informed authorities at the Ministry with this project and they are expecting the meeting with the Minister Zorana Mihajlovic and her team so that they could personally inform them on the details with respect to this green field investment.

- We believe this project will enable us to compete at many European funds supporting innovation environmental projects – Jovica Bozic said.