Aurubis eager to boost its anode business

Leading copper recycling player Aurubis is investing EUR 27 million (US$ 32 million) in the construction of a ‘state-of-the-art’ recycling facility at its Beerse site in Belgium.

Aurubis says its advanced sludge processing facility, to be built near Antwerp, will process anode sludge from two recycling sites; the one in Beerse as well as its site in Lünen, Germany. If all goes according to schedule, construction of the facility is will begin in the second quarter of 2022, with commissioning for early 2024.

‘The new process will enable faster extraction of more precious metals, such as gold and silver, as well as tin from the anode sludge,’ the recycler explains. Today, the plant in Beerse handles around 250 000 tonnes of multi-metal scrap every year, including complex residues and higher-grade scrap.

The arrival of the upcoming facility will make operations ‘a lot faster, more efficient, while ensuring less valuable metal loss,’ comments Aurubis coo Heiko Arnold. ‘It is also a prime example of the synergies created by the acquisition of Metallo and how the whole company benefits in developing new innovative solutions together,’ he goes on to state.

Since taking over the Metallo Group for EUR 380 million (US$ 446.8 million) last year, Aurubis is capable of processing an additional 1 million tonnes of material per annum.