[Anchor]

As international silver prices rise, Ulsan's silver exports in the third quarter of this year doubled compared to a year ago. Although Ulsan has no natural silver mines, the city has expanded its urban mining business based on accumulated smelting technology, making silver its sixth-largest export item.

This is a report from UBC's Lee Young-nam.

[Reporter]

Established in 1978, Korea Zinc's Onsan Smelter.

Silver products are completed after pouring molten metal, a liquid metal extracted from ore, into metal molds and cooling it.

The company's planned silver production for this year is 2,300 tons, which is expected to increase by 10% from last year.

As silver prices have soared, export values have also surged.

International silver prices have averaged $72.44 per ounce so far this year, up 81% from last year.

Thanks to this, Korea Zinc, the world's top producer of zinc and lead, has added silver to its list of world-leading market shares.

Conventional silver smelting generally involves removing impurities from imported ore and then extracting and refining the metals by type.

However, the recent increase in production in Ulsan, which lacks natural silver mines, is thanks to the addition of "urban mining."

Building on its existing smelting technology, the company is also expanding its resource circulation business, which recovers resources from waste electronic appliances and other items.

After collecting waste PCB scraps, which are electronic circuit boards, copper is refined through electrochemical decomposition at the smelter, followed by subsequent processes to recover and produce silver and gold.

Starting this year, the company has also strengthened the foundation for related businesses by operating a copper pyrometallurgical smelting facility.

[Kim Seung-hyun / Head of Korea Zinc Smelter: Based on our existing smelting technology, we launched a pyrometallurgical copper recycling plant this year, and we plan to continuously expand the production of copper and precious metals through resource-circulating smelting activities such as waste solar panels and electronic scrap.]

Accounting for 5% of Ulsan's total export value through the third quarter of this year, silver has emerged as the city's sixth major export item, following petroleum, automobiles, petrochemicals, ships, and non-ferrous metals.

[Lee Min-geun / Head of Ulsan Customs: In the case of Ulsan, since smelting technology is outstanding and the technology for extracting silver using waste electronic products is particularly exceptional, silver production and exports have been surging recently.]

Silver, which has emerged as a major export item, adds significance in that it is a high-value-added industry combining 50 years of accumulated smelting technology and resource circulation business.

(Photo: Choi Hak-soon, UBC)

UBC News, Lee Young-nam