GMA America's breakthrough in sustainability

No matter where you sit in the climate debate, a circular economy simply makes sense. Reducing waste while recapturing and reusing valuable resources should be a focus for everyone.?

At GMA, we are committed to protecting the environment and to being good stewards of our natural resources. GMA has a proud history of sustainable mining practices, and our mine rehabilitation programs have returned our sites to their original state.

Born from this commitment and proud history, GMA has also pioneered large-scale garnet reprocessing?facilities in many of our regions worldwide. By employing innovative technologies to recover previously used garnet, GMA has become the world leader in this endeavor, and has saved countless tons from going to the landfill.

For more than 15 years GMA has invested in process improvements, research and development, and new technologies with the goal of making the best garnet abrasives possible, whether using virgin supplies or a previously used garnet source. The past two years have seen significant breakthroughs in this regard, and we can now confidently say that GMA can produce a reprocessed garnet abrasive that is equal to its virgin counterpart.

With this revelation, GMA Americas will begin utilizing these capabilities to benefit our customers, their markets, and our environment by including some reprocessed material in many of our flagship products.

Why is GMA Americas making this change?

Stewardship of natural resources?

GMA is focused on developing a sustainable future for our business, customers, employees, and communities. GMA is committed to extending the lifespan for every grain of garnet we mine. Globally, we’ve saved hundreds of thousands of tons from going into landfill over the last 20 years and we will save much more in the future.

Expansion of Returned Garnet Program

Utilizing newly reprocessed material more broadly will allow GMA Americas to expand their popular returned garnet program. With rising costs associated with disposal of large quantities through traditional waste management channels, returning previously used garnet to GMA can be a much more cost- effective solution.

Hedge against Supply Chain disruption and rising costs?

With recent supply chain disruptions fresh in consumer’s minds, further strengthening GMA’s already robust supply chain is a focus for the future. By utilizing previously used garnet as an input, which is already “in market”, we can mitigate the risk of delays or rising costs associated with the transportation of raw materials.

Production of Finer grades

When reprocessing previously used abrasives, some of the garnet grains have been broken into smaller particles. This results in the production of finer grade products that are rare in their natural state. These new products fill an important role in several specialty applications.

How will we do it?

GMA is driven by innovation and makes significant investments every year into our mining and processing technologies. These investments have resulted in a combination of unique technologies that allow GMA to deliver the highest quality and highest performing garnet abrasives ever produced.

From wet processing and state- of-the-art magnetic separation, to metered blending and industry leading QC procedures, GMA can now return previously used garnet to a form equal to its unused “virgin” counterpart.

It is through these technologies that GMA can protect our environment, as well as serve our customers, by preserving our natural resources, expanding our used garnet return program, hedging against future supply chain disruptions, and rising costs, and producing valuable fine abrasives for specialty markets.?

So come sit on our side of the fence with GMA’s sustainable future and work together on responsible management of our precious resources.

Christian Waters

VP of Sales and Marketing, GMA Americas