The registration of Iron Silicate, Copper Smelting and Refining

Since the initial registration of the substances covered by the REACH Copper Consortium, the Consortium’s activity focuses on improving and maintaining dossier quality and making updates to the existing joint registrations in light of new information. To this end, improvement projects are set up and conducted in support of iron silicate, copper smelting and refining (EC 701-480-0). This substance is a complex inorganic substance, assigned as UVCB under REACH and currently referred to by the sector as ‘iron silicate’ (previous common name ‘copper final slag’; registered as ‘slag, copper smelting’). It has successfully been updated in 2023.

Following exchanges with ECHA regarding the substance identity improvement, the identifiers (EC/CAS number, chemical name and description) have been amended in order to adequately reflect the substance as manufactured. The change of the substance identity essentially results in a more precise identification of the substance iron silicate and prevents confusion with other (intermediate) slags. For this purpose, all registrants of this substance agreed on the amendments to the substance identity profile including a change of the substance name under REACH; i.e., ‘iron silicate, copper smelting and refining’. This change was completed in early 2023 when the lead and all co-registrants submitted their updated registration with the new identifiers.

A series of further improvement projects have been completed and outcomes implemented in the joint dossier that was successfully submitted by the Lead Registrant in September 2023. Through a joint effort by the registrant members of the REACH Copper Consortium, these projects covered:

• The conduct of dustiness studies and the waiver development for the inhalation route
• The conduct of a series of bio-elution studies in support of the human health hazard assessment
• The amendment of the reports on environmental and health hazard classification assessment
• The amendment of the chemical safety report including the assessment and exposure scenarios of the use of iron silicate as abrasive agent