Aurubis AG and the SMS group have signed a contract today for the construction of a multimetal recycling plant in the United States. As Aurubis announced on November 10, construction of the new Aurubis recycling plant will start in mid-2022 in Augusta in Richmond County in the state of Georgia. Upon commissioning (scheduled for the first half of 2024, the plant will process about 90,000 tons of complex recycling materials annually. Aurubis is creating over 100 jobs in the region as well.

With the agreement, the two companies agree to work closely together on the greenfield project Aurubis Richmond, with the SMS group planning the facility concept, delivering it, and implementing it on site. Moreover, the SMS group is delivering the technology for the top-blown rotary converter, a state-of-theart piece of equipment for processing complex recycling materials to recover copper, nickel, tin, zinc, precious metals, and platinum group metals. The scope of delivery also includes the sampling and off-gas cleaning facilities. Both partners are contributing their expertise to the construction of the modern recycling site to optimally fulfill the requirements of a sustainable circular economy. In the first-ever secondary smelter for multimetal recycling in the United States, circuit boards, copper cable, and other recycling materials containing metals will be processed into 35,000 tons of blister copper annually. Aurubis will further process the intermediate products into various industrial and precious metals at its European smelter sites to a great extent, but also sell them directly in the US market.

Aurubis and the SMS group also signed a cooperation agreement. With this long-term collaboration, both partners intend to be able to quickly implement the planning, construction, and development of additional modular recycling facilities in Europe and North America in the case of a positive investment decision from Aurubis. The construction of Aurubis Richmond is therefore the starting point of this partnership in the multimetal recycling sector and the project’s success points the way ahead for both partners from a strategic perspective.

With the construction of Aurubis Richmond, Aurubis is tapping a market with strong growth potential and expanding its international integrated smelter network. The investment of about EUR 300 million also contributes to the company’s ambitious sustainability targets. The Group expects Aurubis Richmond to generate an annual contribution to earnings of about EUR 80 million EBITDA at full production capacity starting in fiscal year 2025/26.

Aurubis AG is a leading global provider of non-ferrous metals and one of the largest copper recyclers worldwide. The company processes complex metal concentrates, scrap metals, organic and inorganic metal-bearing recycling materials, and industrial residues into metals of the highest quality. Aurubis produces more than 1 million tonnes of copper cathodes annually, and from them a variety of products such as wire rod, continuous cast shapes, profiles, and flat rolled products made of copper and copper alloys. Aurubis produces a number of other metals as well, including precious metals, selenium, lead, nickel, tin, and zinc. The portfolio also includes additional products such as sulfuric acid and iron silicate.

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