Manganese recycling in the United States in 1998

This report describes the flow and processing of manganese within the U.S. economy in 1998 with emphasis on the extent to which manganese is recycled. Manganese was used mostly as an alloying agent in alloys in which it was a minor component. Manganese was recycled mostly within scrap of iron and steel. A small amount was recycled within aluminum used beverage cans. Very little manganese was recycled from materials being recovered specifically for their manganese content. For the United States in 1998, 218,000 metric tons of manganese was estimated to have been recycled from old scrap, of which 96% was from iron and steel scrap. Efficiency of recycling was estimated as 53% and recycling rate as 37%. Metallurgical loss of manganese was estimated to be about 1.7 times that recycled. This loss was mostly into slags from iron and steel production, from which recovery of manganese has yet to be shown economically feasible.