Yeongpung Achieves Integrated B+ in 'ESG Evaluation'... Upgraded for 2 Consecutive Years

Environmental Investment and ESG Management Achievements Including Introduction of Wastewater Reuse Facilities

Global non-ferrous metals company Yeongpung announced on the 30th that it received an integrated B+ (Good) rating in the 2023 ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) evaluation of listed companies conducted by the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS), rising one grade from the previous year. The integrated rating has increased for two consecutive years.

Specifically, the environmental sector improved by two grades to B+ (Good), and the social sector rose by one grade to A (Excellent). The governance sector remained the same as the previous year at B (Average). KCGS is a non-profit corporation involving capital market-related organizations such as the Korea Exchange and is the most credible ESG evaluation institution in Korea.

Yeongpung’s main business site, the Yeongpung Seokpo Smelter in Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongbuk Province, is the world’s third-largest non-ferrous metal smelter based on zinc production (up to 400,000 tons annually). Yeongpung has established and is implementing a comprehensive environmental investment plan worth 700 billion KRW by 2025 to realize the coexistence of environment and business.

Yeongpung Seokpo Smelter Plant View
[Photo by Yeongpung]

Notably, in 2021, it became the world’s first smelter to introduce and stably operate a “wastewater reuse facility (Zero Liquid Discharge system)” that does not discharge a single drop of wastewater from the smelting process externally. The wastewater reuse facility, named 'Z·L·D (Zero Liquid Discharge),' is an atmospheric evaporation-type zero discharge system. It purifies the process water, boils and evaporates it, then collects the steam to recover 100% clean water, which is reused in the process.

Currently, the facility treats an average of 2,000 to 2,500 tons of process water daily, reusing all of it in the process, thereby contributing to the conservation of Nakdong River water resources and environmental protection. Yeongpung is also engaging in independent carbon neutrality activities to overcome the climate crisis, such as waste heat power generation and operation of an ESS (Energy Storage System), participation in the Ministry of Environment’s ‘2030 Zero-Emission Vehicle Transition 100’ campaign, and free provision of the smelter-owned ultra-high voltage (154 kV) power grid for the resident-led ‘Omisan Wind Power’ project.

Yeongpung practices regional coexistence through continuous social contribution activities such as annual donations of money and goods, hosting small concerts and village contests, and free operation of communal village bathhouses. In the eco-friendly new business sector, it is promoting a ‘secondary battery resource circulation’ project that recovers rare metals such as lithium from end-of-life electric vehicle batteries and other secondary batteries to reuse them as core materials for batteries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.