Aurubis expands investment at Hamburg, Germany, plant

Aurubis AG has approved additional, comprehensive investments focused on its Hamburg, Germany, site, with its supervisory board endorsing two new projects that total 330 million euros, or $356.1 million.

The company will invest approximately 300 million euros ($323.7 million) for a new precious metals refinery (PMR) that when combined with its current facilities will create a new, integrated high-security area for the processing of precious metals. Aurubis also is allocating roughly 30 million euros, or $32.4 million, in environmental protection equipment at the site, announcing the second stage and significant expansion of the reducing diffuse emissions (RDE) system used in primary copper production.

The new PMR is slated to come online at the end of 2026, according to the company, which adds that Precious Metals Hamburg comprises the entire precious metals processing chain in one closed security area.

That investment is in response to inventory discrepancies found earlier this year. In late summer, the company announced it had “identified considerable discrepancies in target inventory” and in “individual samples from specific shipments of input materials for the recycling area” while conducting a scheduled audit.

Aurubis says that in addition to security and occupational safety enhancements at the site, the project involves “innovative process technology and systems engineering.” The company’s newly developed metallurgical process should improve efficiency, reducing throughput times for materials containing precious metals, and lower operating costs by an anticipated 15 percent. The new plant allows Aurubis to expand its precious metals production capacity "significantly" and lays the groundwork for additional growth strategy projects, the company says.

The expansion of the Hamburg site’s environmental equipment will double the system’s efficiency to 80 percent, according to Aurubis, representing another significant drop in the fine particulate matter the site releases, which is already below the threshold level. Since 2000, the Aurubis Group has invested about 830 million euros ($895.6 million) in environmental protection measures for copper production.

“By endorsing these comprehensive investment projects at its most recent meeting, the supervisory board affirmed its support for the Aurubis growth strategy and for strengthening our core business,” Aurubis CEO Roland Harings says. “We are making an important contribution to sustainable, environmentally friendly and innovative metal production with these projects.”

Aurubis is investing more than 750 million euros ($809.3 million) in its Hamburg plant when these new projects are combined with previously approved projects, some of which are underway:

• increased extraction of carbon-free industrial heat, preventing an additional 100,000 metric tons of CO2 per year;
• the Complex Recycling Hamburg project will give Aurubis the capacity to process roughly 30,000 additional metric tons of recyclables and internal, complex smelter intermediary products starting in 2025;
• new anode furnaces will come online in the spring of 2024 that can use hydrogen instead of natural gas in the reduction process, potentially preventing around 5,000 metric tons of CO2 per year; and
• the largest routine maintenance shutdown in the history of the Aurubis Hamburg plant is scheduled for the spring.

“All these projects represent a powerful commitment to the Aurubis Hamburg site, which is central to the success of our smelter network,” Harings says. “The new processing area for precious metals takes security to a completely new level. We are acting quickly, decisively and with resolve,” he adds, referencing the recent criminal activities directed against Aurubis. “And by expanding our filter system for diffuse emissions, we are also intensifying our leading position as a sustainable multimetal producer.”

The supervisory board also approved an investment volume increase to 740 euros, or $798.5 million, for construction of Aurubis Richmond in the U.S. state of Georgia, to which leasing obligations will be added, according to the company. Additional design and infrastructure requirements, adjustments for inflation and increased complexity in implementation necessitated the expansion, Aurubis adds.

Additionally, Aurubis confirmed plans to expand its solar park at the Aurubis plant in Bulgaria with an investment of nearly 15 million euros, or $16.2 million, nearly doubling the output of the existing plant.