Metals

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Investment in Ohio secondary copper plant underway

Middletown, Ohio-based scrap recycling firm Cohen reportedly is a key investor in an effort to bring a red metal scrap-to-copper cathode production facility to southwest or west central Ohio.

A Fastmarkets AMM article in mid-June cites Cohen’s Tyler Fojtik as the CEO of the Cohen Reco (renewable commodities) project, which carries a price tag of some $800 million and is in the process of seeking permits to build and operate the plant.

Fojtik tells the publication the plant will be designed to produce copper cathode from lower grades of copper-bearing scrap, such as those produced in the auto and electronics shredding process.

Cohen operates about a dozen facilities in Ohio and Kentucky, including one auto shredder in West Carrollton, Ohio. The company increased its presence in the electronics recycling sector in 2017 with significant investments in electronics collection and recycling, including a shredding system in Middletown.

Fojtik says the Reco project will be able to convert the lower grades of red metal scrap into some 80,000 metric tons per year of copper cathode and of extracting as much as 10 metric tons per year of gold and additional quantities of silver and platinum group metals.

The investment in Ohio is occurring simultaneously with a project in North Carolina that has wire and cable processing firm Prime Materials Recovery, headquartered in East Hartford, Connecticut, planning a melt shop that will consume 54,000 tons of red metal scrap annually to produce 50,000 tons of 99.7 percent pure copper anodes.

The North Carolina project involves a partnership with Spain-based Cunext Group as a refining technology provider. Fojtik has indicated the Ohio facility will use European technology.

As the People’s Republic of China has erected barriers to its formerly high-volume purchases of red metal scrap exported from the U.S., recyclers have posited whether some melting capacity might return to North America.

At the 2018 Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Convention in April of that year, Tim Strelitz of California Metal-X stated, “I think a secondary copper smelter is absolutely vital to the good and welfare of the U.S.”

GLR America to broker nonferrous metals

Roseville, Michigan-based GLR Advanced Recycling has launched GLR America, a nonferrous metals brokerage division.

GLR America specializes in export and domestic full-truckloads and container-loads, servicing the entire United States and Canada. The firm also purchases mixed nonferrous loads and offers creative payment structures.

GLR Advanced Recycling President and CEO Michael Bassirpour says of the new division, “During these uncertain times in the world, we thought it was necessary to leverage the relationships and trust we have built throughout the years with our consumers and suppliers to vertically grow our business while helping our customer base. With our 93 years in business coupled with our partners at Padnos, we firmly believe that we have the best consumers in the world, which gives us the ability to quote suppliers the highest numbers possible while having the financial strength and credibility to establish trust.”

Jay Mentzel, vice president of metals at GLR Advanced Recycling, will head GLR America and can be contacted at jay@glradvanced.com.