Aurubis expands tankhouse, solar park at Bulgarian operations

Aurubis has broken ground on two projects at its site in Pirdop, Bulgaria, that will help the company expand its production while also decarbonizing.

The Germany-based company is investing 400 million euros, or $428.7 million, to expand its tankhouse for copper production and build two additional solar power plants.

By expanding the tankhouse, Aurubis says it will increase the site’s annual output by roughly 50 percent to 340,000 tons of refined copper.

Expanding the company’s captive solar capacity, for which an additional extension stage has been approved, will result in the generation of 40 megawatt peak (MWp) of solar power per year.

“Today’s groundbreaking for two projects impressively demonstrates how we are consistently realizing our Driving Sustainable Growth company strategy,” Aurubis CEO Roland Harings says. “Investing in expanding the tankhouse will help us meet the globally rising need for copper, the element of the energy transition, even better.”

“We congratulate Aurubis on the newly launched large investment program,” Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Industry Petko Nikolov said at the groundbreaking. “Our government focuses precisely on investments like this that generate greater added value for the economy. Aurubis is among the biggest investors in our country, and we thank the company for trusting Bulgaria, modernizing production and investing in green technologies.”

Aurubis has been operating in Bulgaria since 2008 and says it is the largest industrial company in the country. The production site in Pirdop has one of the company’s highest throughput rates.

In copper production, electrolysis is the final purification step (refining). By investing 120 million euros ($128.6 million) in expanding the tankhouse, Aurubis is increasing its production capacity in Bulgaria by 110,000 tons annually. 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.

Commissioning of the tankhouse is scheduled for the second half of 2026.

Aurubis has invested in its solar energy capacity in Bulgaria beginning with an installation of more than 20,000 photovoltaic panels on a 104,000-square-meter plot on a remediated and recultivated landfill in 2021. The company is increasing captive power generation at the site by building a total of four photovoltaic plants. Once completed, they will provide roughly 15 percent of the site’s electricity needs.

Annually, the plants will generate roughly 55,000 megawatt hours, the electricity it would take to power a town of 25,000 people for a year. This will not only make it less susceptible to price fluctuations in the energy market, it also is a key step toward carbon-neutral production, Aurubis says.

The company notes it is pursuing carbon-neutral production well before 2050 as part of its sustainability strategy.

Once all four modules are completed, Aurubis says it will prevent around 25,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year. The final expansion stage is anticipated to go online in 2026.

These two strategic projects are parts of an extensive investment program to increase the site’s efficiency and secure its long-term future, according to the company. Aurubis is financing higher energy efficiency, including deploying 460 high-efficiency motors in the Bulgaria plant, replacing transformers, and installing new lighting technology. The company says the new motors alone will prevent 12,000 tons of CO₂ emissions.

The company also is investing in infrastructure projects, such as comprehensively retrofitting its smelter during a planned, large-scale shutdown in 2025 and a company fleet of train cars to transport copper concentrates from the Port of Burgas to Pirdop. Additionally, Aurubis has wastewater treatment and slag processing projects planned.

“Over the next few years, we will be investing more than 400 million euros in increasing capacity, improving sustainability and further expanding production in Pirdop while gearing up for the coming years and decades,” Aurubis Bulgaria CEO Tim Kurth says. “It is the largest investment program since the site was acquired in 2008 and a clear sign of the site’s importance as a central pillar of the Aurubis smelter network.”