Germany invests in new metal recycling technologies for batteries
Aurubis, a German company based in Hamburg and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, wants to build a precious metal recovery plant in Belgium.
Aurubis invests 70 million euros in a plant in Olen, Belgium. The facility is equipped with a complete electrolytic treatment system, and investments are aimed at increasing the processing capacity.
The BOB (Bleed Treatment Olen Beerse) hydrometallurgical process will recover metals such as nickel and copper from the electrolyte streams generated during the electrolysis of metals at the Belgian Aurubis plants in Berse and Olen.
Aurubis expects EBITDA of around EUR 15 million once the new plant is fully operational in fiscal year 2025/26.
“With Olen Beerse’s Bleed Treatment technology, we are adding an energy-saving and efficient step to the process of recovering nickel, a metal essential for lithium-ion batteries and thus an important element in the development of electromobility,” says the Aurubis operations board. member Heiko Arnold.
Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin in September 2022. The metal recycling process should begin in the summer of 2024.
Aurubis was founded in 1866 as a joint stock company. After its debut on the stock exchange in 1998 and several mergers, mergers and international expansions, it is an international group with about 7,200 employees in manufacturing plants in Europe and the USA.