POSCO to provide steel slags for marine resources

SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, has signed an agreement to supply steel slags for an effort to restore South Korea's marine resources, the government said Tuesday.

Steel slags are a by-product of refining iron and can be used to make artificial
reefs and facilitate the growth of underwater forests, the Ministry for Food,
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
The memorandum of understanding between the ministry and POSCO, also South
Korea's leading steelmaker, calls for the slags to be provided free of charge for
five years.
Reefs and underwater forests attract fish and help slow the destruction of the
sea bed environment caused by rising water temperatures and a proliferation of
sea urchins and star fish, which eat up aquatic plant life.
The slags are rich in iron content and have been proven to be an eco-friendly
building material, the ministry said. They also trap carbon dioxide, cited for
causing global warming, in the manufacturing process.
The Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology in Pohang, a port
city about 375 kilometers southeast of Seoul where POSCO is headquartered, have
experimented with steel slags in 11 offshore regions over the past decade and
found that the material can help restore marine environments without causing
pollution, the ministry said.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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