Industrial Minerals


Foraging for foundry sands

December 2011


Metalcasting consumes vast quantities of industrial minerals – either as foundry sands or additives – which are subsequently landfilled. But simple processing of spent sands can provide a stable and valuable source of secondary foundry materials

Keywords: Alexander Mill Services, AMSI, chromite, recycling, foundries, metalcasting, frac sand

Recycling - it’s a sign of the times. From paper and plastic products to electronic wastes and metals, the recycling movement is growing. There is one company that has now brought this concept to the industrial minerals field. Alexander Mill Services International Inc. (AMSI), based in Harmony, Pennsylvania, USA has been supplying the foundry, refractory and special minerals industries with reclaimed products since 2005.

AMSI’s involvement with chromite reclamation began in July 2003, when Tom Vlajkovich, a broker for American Waste Management Services, contacted the company about its interest in the reclamation of a hazardous waste landfill in Ohio.

“He posed the question; can you reclaim chromite sand from silica sand,” John Alexander III, president of AMSI, told IM. “Yes I said, yes I can. I did not want to miss the opportunity, and although I was not even vaguely aware of what chromite sand was...