Changing Roles

Two familiar names in the precious metals industry made news this spring by decreasing their roles in traditional business lines.

Handy & Harman, a subsidiary of WHX Corp., New York, is planning to exit several precious metals activities. The facilities the company is looking to cast off include the company’s precious metals refining plants in Fairfield, Ct., and East Providence, R.I. According to the company, it has decided to move away from some of its historical business base and focus its resources on higher growth activities.

In other news, Sweden’s Trelleborg Group has agreed to sell Metech International Inc., a U.S precious metals recovery company with plants in Gilroy, Calif., and Mapleville, R.I. The company extracts precious metals from scrap circuit boards and other sources of recycled precious metals. Metech’s buyer is Viking Platinum Investments LLC, the U.S. subsidiary of South Africa’s Viking holding company.

The acquisition, Viking’s second in the resources sector, boosts the new entrant’s platinum production to 150,000 ounces a year. David Mostert, a Viking director, says, “What we have is a very exciting business which produces metals from sources other than mines. We also have a sustainable source without making huge holes in the ground and hiring thousands of people to work in unsafe conditions. Because the precious metals are recycled the business is also friendly to the environment.”

“The preliminary agreement reached with Viking regarding this divestment will enable us to release the capital tied up in Metech’s operations in an acceptable manner,” says Fredrik Arp, Trelleborg’s CEO.