Aurubis’ latest facility has the capacity to process over 180,000 tons of complex recycling materials annually, including circuit boards and copper cables. | Courtesy of Arubis
German company Aurubis has brought its multi-metal recycling facility in Georgia online after two years of work.
Located in Augusta, the $800 million facility, named Aurubis Richmond, is the “first-ever secondary smelter of its kind for multi metal recycling in the United States,” according to a press release. It will have a processing capacity of more than 180,000 tons of complex materials annually, including circuit boards, copper cables and other metal-containing products.
The plant will produce blister copper, which will later be processed into industrial and precious metals at the company’s European smelter sites, with some of the final product sold back into the U.S. market.
Aurubis CEO Toralf Haag said the smelter “will allow us to keep strategically important metals in the economy, making U.S. supply chains more independent.”
“The new site shows very clearly how Aurubis combines profitable growth and sustainable business activity, following our ambition to responsibly transform raw materials into value for an innovative and sustainable world,” he added.
The original plan was for the faculty to have a smaller capacity, but in 2023 Aurubis decided to double the plant’s metals recovery capacity by adding a second recycling module.
This first stage of the plant was scheduled to come online in the first half of 2024, with the second slated for 2026.
“Aurubis Richmond is going to become a major player in the North American multimetal supply chain,” said David Schultheis, president and managing director of Aurubis Richmond.