(MERAF) for the Base Metals Smelting Sector - CCME

4.2.3. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
UNECE’s Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air
Pollution of Heavy Metals 136 deals with the emissions and emission control of
cadmium, lead and mercury in the primary and secondary production of nonferrous
metals like lead, copper, zinc, tin and nickel.
The Protocol requires each party to apply the limit values specified in annex V of
the protocol to each new stationary source within a major stationary source
category.
The limit values are also to be applied to each existing source within a major
stationary source category insofar as this is technically and economically
feasible.
“Installation for the production of copper, lead and zinc from ore, concentrate or
secondary raw materials by metallurgical process” is one of the major stationary
sources identified in the protocol.
Two types of limit values are used in the Protocol for heavy metal emission
control:
• Values for specific heavy metals or groups of heavy metals; and
• Values for emissions of particulate matter in general.
Table 36 shows the applicable limits for the non-ferrous industry:
Table 36: UNECE Particulate Emissions Limits
Category
Production of copper and zinc, including
Imperial Smelting furnaces
Limit
(mg/m 3 )
Production of lead 10
20
136 UNECE, Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution of
Heavy Metals. URL: www.unece.org/env/lrtap/protocol/98hm.htm
146