“On October 4th, 2010, a large tailings dam in the town of Ajka, Hungary containing highly caustic alumina refinery residue (“red mud”) breached its northern wall and spilled approximately 700,000 tonnes of red mud over a 40 square kilometre area, much of it 2.0 metres deep in Kolontar, killing ten people and hospitalising another 120.” The risk, although now abating, includes the possibility of the mud reaching and polluting the Danube River, one of Europe’s most important waterways.

As The Australian newspaper reported on October 6^th, “the government has declared a state of emergency in three western counties most damaged by the poisonous flood from a reservoir at an aluminium plant that broke its walls on Monday, and labelled the disaster a ‘catastrophe’”. As Dr Lee Fergusson, Virotec’s Chief Executive Officer stated “this disaster will unfortunately have long-lasting impacts on the people and environment of Hungary, and Virotec expresses its deepest sympathy to the people of Kolontar affected by this tragic event.”

Virotec has been working with alumina refineries in many countries for the past ten years to deploy its Basecon Technology, which neutralises alumina refinery red mud and converts it into a benign and safe material. Red mud typically has a pH of more than 12.5 and high levels of total alkalinity, mostly in the form of sodium hydroxide. This combination means that the red mud is a classified “hazardous” waste in the European Union, and its management and safe storage is tightly controlled around the world. It is the highly corrosive nature of red mud which has caused so much damage in Hungary, resulting in serious burns and even death. Basecon Technology reduces the pH of red mud to <10.5, and also reduces total alkalinity, which is the source of the mud’s dangerous corrosiveness, from around 7,000 parts per million to less than 500 parts per million.

Given that 150 million tonnes of red mud is produced and stored each year, and more than 2.5 billion tonnes of the hazardous mud is in stockpile worldwide, there is a clear need to find suitable and sustainable ways to neutralise the high caustic component of this material.

Dr Fergusson concluded by saying that “Virotec is therefore pleased to announce that it has been working closely for the last two weeks with a dredging and engineering company in Europe through its UK affiliate, Virotec Europe Ltd, to provide the Hungarian Government with an effective solution for treating the remaining 1.0 million tonnes of red mud still in the tailings dam, but which also threaten release causing further downstream social and environmental destruction. As these initiatives come to fruition, Virotec will keep the market informed of any outcomes in Hungary.”