Money from old rubber: Chile's mine tire recycling opportunities, challenges

The recycling of mine vehicle tires in Chile constitutes a business opportunity for prospective new companies, an industry leader said.

By 2030, under current environmental rules, 90% of all tires except bicycle and solid tires - and 100% of mine vehicle tires that fit wheel rims measuring 45in or bigger - must be recycled. 

Requirements will be introduced gradually from 2023.

"The recycling of mine tires tends to be a major problem for mining companies – and today also for their providers, that is to say, manufacturers. But it is also a major opportunity for new companies," Manuel Viera, chairman of Chile's mining chamber, said during a webcast hosted by the industry body.

"It is important to point out that a key objective of ours is transforming environmental liabilities into environmental assets, that is to say, add value."

Tire rules are outlined in a January supreme decree that followed the approval of waste management law 20,920, which places new responsibilities on producers or importers of products, establishing tires, batteries and lubricating oil, among others, as priority segments.

The onus will be on tire providers to collect used ones, an obligation that will generate logistical costs, which would be partly linked to the location of tire dumps and distance to recycling centers, the webcast was told. Chile's mining industry is working in this area, delegates heard.

Panelist Dalibor Dragicevic, operations VP at copper mine Collahuasi, said that his firm, under a wider circular economy strategy, planned to start tire-recycling next quarter.

"We think there is an opportunity in the reformulation of the mining process," Dragicevic said, adding that the objective was turning old tires into new ones.

In the off-the-road tire segment, last year Chile imported 10,345, or 42,709t of large mine, or class B, tires, according to data from Chile's tire industry chamber. In terms of smaller tires, a market segment that has many more supply-side players, 15,884, or 7,088t, were imported.

The Chilean market for large mine tires, used in open pit vehicles and each weighing around 2t or more, is worth about US$500mn a year.

José Browne, CEO of the tire industry chamber, said that providers would, at least initially, build the cost of collecting and processing used tires into tire prices.

Chile already has recycling capacity in place and various new projects, pyrolysis and shredding, are planned, Browne told the webcast.  

Among them is a 30,000t/y capacity pyrolysis facility planned by French tire-maker Michelin and Swedish tire-recycling technology company Enviro. The process recovers carbon black, oil, steel and gas.

Shredded tire material can be used in the likes of road and sports facility construction or for further processing. Demand for shredded tire material could grow with the right incentives, the webcast was told.

-Carbon black can be used in the fabrication of new tires and in the likes of plastics, paint and lithium ion battery manufacturing. "It's a market that could be taken advantage of," Heidy Jofré, sustainability leader at mining sector development organization Alta Ley, said. Gas could be used to power the recycling facilities themselves. 

Indeed, a challenge for Chile is ensuring a market for all products churned out during the recycling process, Browne said.

"The problem is the commercialization of the products that are obtained," he said. "It is necessary to add-value down stream."

Chilean miners currently sit on a mountain of more than 400,000t of unused tires and are producing around 27,000t a year. The bulk are sitting in the country's mining-heavy Antafagasta region.

The shift constitutes a "tremendous opportunity to eliminate the stockpile of unused tires that exists today," Jofré said.

Establishing a pyrolysis operation - under a service provider model - would be feasible in Antofagasta but an additional cost or fee would be required if established in other mining regions such as Valparaiso or metropolitan Santiago, according to an Alta Ley presentation.  

Jofré said collaboration was key: "Everyone needs to participate; this cannot be a solution only on the side of providers or only on the side of mining."

Overall, Chile disposes of around 6.6mn tires a year, generating around 140,000t of used material. Only 17% is handled in an environmentally responsible manner, Jofré said.

Picture credit: Chile's mining ministry