Aurubis commissions upgraded tankhouse

Aurubis AG has announced the launch of its refurbished tankhouse for copper production at its recycling plant in Lünen, Germany, one of two such projects the company announced. The modernized facility will increase its production capacity by roughly 10 percent and generate up to 210,000 metric tons of copper cathodes annually. 

The company began work on the tankhouse in October 2020, completing it on schedule. Upgrades include the complete refurbishment of the tankhouse basins, infrastructure improvements such as a renovated roof and investment in further automation, such as state-of-the-art robot technology, Aurubis says.

The Hamburg, Germany-based company says it invested 60 million euros ($65.3 million) to “future-proof” the tankhouse, allowing it to process large concentrations of gold, tin and nickel as well as copper.  

Lünen Mayor Jürgen Kleine-Frauns says, “This significant investment of 60 million euros is a clear signal of Aurubis’ commitment to the Lünen recycling site, to strong and efficient industry, to protecting the climate and to safeguarding jobs and apprenticeships. Modern and responsible industrial companies like Aurubis are the foundation of our region’s prosperity.”

"Global demand for raw materials is on the rise,” Aurubis AG Chief Operating Officer, Multimetal Recycling, Inge Hofkens says. “As the largest multimetal recycling site in Europe, Lünen is a cornerstone of the circular economy. We’re delivering more responsibly produced metals to the market with our modernized tankhouse—for a successful energy transition—while strengthening and securing our core business at the same time.”

"I am particularly proud of the fact that we were able to keep the facility running reliably at 80 percent while construction was going on,” Lünen Plant Manager Verena von Weiss says. “Aurubis is advancing its pioneering role in recycling by investing in renovating the tankhouse.”

The tankhouse is the last step in the copper refining process, in which copper anodes—plates weighing about 400 kilograms (more than 880 pounds) with a copper content of up to 98 percent recovered by melting down recycling raw materials in multiple upstream steps—are electrochemically dissolved. The copper ions are deposited on stainless steel plates, resulting in 99.99 percent pure copper for optimal conductivity in downstream applications, Aurubis explains. The other substances contained in the anode, such as precious metals, precipitate out during electrolysis and are separated from each other in additional steps and refined in the Aurubis Group network.

Earlier this year, Aurubis announced that it had broken ground on a 120 million euros ($128.6 million) project to expand the tankhouse at its Pirdop, Bulgaria, site. The investment will allow the company to increase the site’s annual output by roughly 50 percent to 340,000 tons of refined copper. The Bulgarian site will be able to process all the anode copper it produces, curtailing logistics and lowering its carbon footprint through indirect Scope 3 emissions.