Solutions for mixed metal processing and sorting
What are mixed metals and how are they processed?
Mixed metals are material streams containing different ferrous and non-ferrous metal fractions. They typically originate from industrial recycling processes, shredding operations, construction and demolition waste (C&D), end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) or industrial residues.
These materials often present challenges such as varying particle sizes, contamination and different density levels. As a result, efficient recovery requires integrated systems capable of combining size reduction, cleaning, separation and sorting technologies to maximise material value.
At ZB, we design plants tailored to the incoming material, its composition and the final products our customers need to recover, integrating the appropriate equipment and process configuration for every application..
Plants designed around your material, production targets and recovery goals
Every mixed metal stream requires a different process configuration. To develop the most effective solution, we analyse:
- Material composition
- Ferrous and non-ferrous metal content
- Material size, density and moisture
- Contamination levels and impurities
- Required production capacity
- Existing separation and sorting systems
- Target purity and quality of the recovered materials
Based on this assessment, we design a technical solution that improves metal recovery while producing cleaner, denser and higher-value materials.
Higher recovery rates. Cleaner, denser materials.
The correct process configuration significantly improves the efficiency of downstream separation systems, increasing the recovery of valuable metals while enhancing the quality of the final products.
By integrating cleaning systems, magnetic separation, Eddy Current separators and density-based sorting technologies, both ferrous and non-ferrous metals can be recovered more efficiently, producing cleaner and more valuable recycled materials.


