Aurubis investigates internal theft issue

Germany-based Aurubis AG, which also operates a secondary copper production facility in Buffalo, New York, and is building another in Richmond, Georgia, has “identified considerable discrepancies in target inventory” while conducting a scheduled audit.

Aurubis says the scheduled review turned up the inventory discrepancies “as well as in individual samples from specific shipments of input materials for the recycling area.

The newly uncovered evidence has led Aurubis to conclude it “has been the target of further criminal activity following [previous] cases reported in June 2023.” Aurubis, with the majority of its capacity in Germany and nearby nations, has involved Germany’s Landeskriminalamt (LKA), a law enforcement agency that operates in all 16 German states.

The metals producer says the exact amount of the damages it has incurred cannot yet be accurately assessed, but it has begun what it calls a special inventory of metal reserves from which it anticipates final results at the end of this month.

”It cannot currently be ruled out that the damages might be in the low, three-digit-million-euro range,” Aurubis says. “The losses will impact the 2022-23 fiscal year result. As such, the forecast range for the current 2022/23 fiscal year [450 million to 550 million euros, or $485 million to $593 million] will not be achieved.”

Aurubis says its executive board and supervisory board have initiated investigations by internal and external experts to clarify the facts of the incident with a view to further improving the security concept.