Recycling quartz from mining waste

An EPFL engineer has discovered a way to extract value from mining waste by recycling the quartz it contains to make composite surfaces for kitchen and bathroom countertops. Brazil-based Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, will try out his idea. When iron ore is mined, only the most valuable portion is sold; the rest is discharged as waste, or "tailings." In 2013, Emile Scheepers, a metallurgical engineer who was then enrolled in EPFL's Executive Master's of Business Administration (EMBA) program, analyzed this situation. "We found that mining byproducts containing high levels of quartz can be used to make synthetic quartz, a material commonly used in kitchen and bathroom countertops," he says. He presented his idea to Vale, and the company quickly came on board with the idea. Yesterday the Brazil-based mining giant presented its Vale Quartz initiative at a press conference. Synthetic quartz surfaces are an increasingly popular alternative to marble and granite for home interiors.