Iron Silicate, Copper Smelting and Refining

Iron silicate, copper smelting and refining under REACH

A substance identity adaptation has been accepted by ECHA and completed by all registrants, and in 2023: Co-registrants and members of the Consortium managed by the ECI have updated their registrations in this regard. The current identifiers for this substance are:

Iron silicate, copper smelting and refining description:

Substance produced from cleaning of slags from copper smelting and refining or processing of other heterogeneous mixtures of copper bearing material by reduction at high temperature in molten state in a furnace (e.g., electric furnace, shaft furnace, or fuming furnace) or by flotation process. It mainly contains iron silicate and silicates of aluminium and calcium. Traces of other non-ferrous metals are reduced to the lowest extent economically and technologically viable, and are largely included in the silicate phases.

This substance was previously registered under ‘Slag, copper smelting’ (EC 266-968-3), also referred to as copper final slag. Following the substance identity adaptation with ECHA, the substance name under REACH is now ‘iron silicate, copper smelting and refining’ (EC 701-480-0), also referred to by industry as iron silicate. A series of further improvement projects have been completed and implemented in the joint dossier. This included updates to the risk assessment of identified uses and was successfully submitted to ECHA on 28 September 2023.

ECI’s Classification and Labelling proposal under REACH for Iron silicate, copper smelting and refining): 

• No classification and no labelling for Human Health or Environmental hazards.

ECI continues to offer Letters of Access to registrants. Please contact the Secretariat at reach@copperalliance.org for the terms and conditions, as well as the application form.

In case of questions, please contact reach@copperalliance.org