We cannot and we do not want to avoid responsibility for the condition of the environment we live in.
We aim to promote a sustainable development and a protection of the natural environment wherever we work.
In '60 when we started with the construction of a copper mining-smelting complex in the Legnica-Głogów region we gave an enormous opportunity for the social-economic development of this part of the Lower Silesian Region.
This also entailed significant changes in its natural environment.
At that time we determined and implemented all the practices of a professional ecological policy, precursory in the country and meeting the then current European standards.
Some 10 years ahead of the enactment of the environmental protection act, we , on our own initiative, created our own environmental protection standards in the early seventies, which carried out environmental protection activities for the copper industry and the regionThe burden on the environment created by such a large-mining industry built in an agricultural region with a dense residential network was inevitable.
The key challenge to finding and developing technologies for sustainable operations
This burden was consistently mitigated over the years through progress in the copper protection technology and thanks to the application of own and global pro-ecological technologies.
The emission of gases and dust into the atmosphere by the smelters during the first decade of operation of our company, which affected not just the residents of adjacent villages, but Legnica and Głogów as well, was a major ecological problem in the regions. These emissions originated from the smelter processes conducted in shaft furnaces and convertors. Hermetization was not possible at the time, because the untypical composition of the ore and the concentrates imposed the need on Polish copper smelters to develop their own technological solutions, including environmental protection technologies.
The gases from shaft furnaces discharged into the atmosphere contained mainly dust containing metals and carbon oxide, while the converters emitted sulphur dioxide – directed to sulphuric acid factories. The efficiency of these factories did not exceed 50% during the initial period. Initiatives targeted at increasing this efficiency through modernisation of individual nodes at these factories were continuously carried out and the expected radical improvement was achieved in the mid-nineteen-nineties thanks to the construction of new sulphuric acid factories for HM (copper smelter) Legnica and HM Głogów I, which at present operate at 99% efficiency.
Once again a breakthrought in the environment protection
The breakthrough in the reduction of the gas emissions into the atmosphere by shaft furnaces and converters was associated with the decision to build copper smelter "Głogów II" under a new technology, i.e. the modified Outokumpu process with single-stage blister copper smelting in the flash furnaces. The new technology enables the stable operation of the sulphuric acid factory with the double conversion process and efficiency above 90% (subsequently this efficiency was increased to 99%).
When highly-efficient bag filters, resistant to the conditions in the smelters, became available on the market, the electric furnace at HM Głogów II was equipped with them, followed by concentrate driers at HM Legnica and a new reverberatory and stationary furnace in the lead division replacing the less efficient wet dust removal plant. Desulphurization installations were constructed for the heat and power plants located at HM Legnica and HM Głogów I. The sulphur removal technology at HM Legnica is based on the SOLINOX process, concerning the selective physical absorption of sulphur dioxide with the use of liquid solvent, which has a full regeneration capability. The efficiency of the process is 98%.
The exhaust gases from the heat and power plant at HM Głogów I have been desulphurized since 1997 under a semi-dry method providing increased efficiency (up to 90%), thanks to the use of spreading heads manufactured by American company Kromlin-Sanderson.
As a result of all these activities the sulphur dioxide emissions have been reduced by 96% and copper and lead by over 99% since 1980.