Preservation of zinc resources
Zinc is an abundant element in the Earth's crust. The amount of zinc in the first kilometre of the Earth's crust (excluding seas and oceans) is estimated at 224.000.000 million tonnes. In the seas and oceans, this quantity is estimated at 15.000 million tonnes. VMZINC produces all its rolled zinc according to a strict process of sustainable resource management.
More than half of the zinc ore is used for galvanising steel to protect against corrosion, a quarter is used as a base element in alloys (die-casting and brass industry), almost 10% is used in the chemical industry and 6% is used in the rolled zinc industry, where it is used in building envelope applications.
Knowing that 40% of the zinc consumed worldwide comes from recycled zinc (2) and taking into account the amount of available mining resources (1.900 million tonnes) and the growth in global zinc consumption (between 1,5 and 3% per year), according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group, the supply of zinc will be sustainably guaranteed for the next century.
Our zinc ores
The zinc ores from which VMZINC rolling zinc is sourced, come mainly from the Americas and to a lesser extent from Europe:
- 33% from North America (USA, Canada),
- 20% from Europe (Finland)
- 17% from South America (Mexico, Chile and Peru).
The mines from which the main zinc ores from which VMZINC rolled zinc is extracted belong to Nyrstar, one of the main suppliers of primary zinc to VMZINC. This company has defined and implemented a demanding sustainable development policy at all its mining sites by setting ambitious environmental, social and economic objectives.