Glencore targets copper in its electronics recycling efforts

Switzerland-based metals and commodities trading firm Glencore has released a 2021 Climate Report in which it indicates it recovered some 27,000 metric tons of copper for recycling last year, as well as considerable volumes of precious metals.

“We are one of the world’s largest recyclers of end-of-life electronics, batteries and battery metals,” the firm states in a press release announcing its 2021 Climate Report. “We plan to grow our global footprint in current and new markets.”

Other volume figures for 2020 disclosed by Glencore from its electronics recycling efforts include the recovery of 1.3 million ounces (81,250 pounds) of silver; 132,000 ounces (8,250 pounds) of gold; 16,000 ounces (1,000 pounds) of palladium; and 5,000 ounces (312 pounds) of platinum. Those metals, says the firm, were harvested “from electronic scrap and other recycling feeds.”

States Glencore, “Our copper and electronic waste recycling business was one of the world’s first and is North America’s largest for end-of-life electronics.” On its website, Glencore says its Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada, helps make it “North America's largest processor of electronic scrap containing copper and precious metals.”

In its climate report, Glencore also writes that its nickel business unit “is one of the world’s largest processors of secondary nickel- and cobalt-bearing materials.” It says its smelter in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, and its Nikkelverk refinery in Norway “process alloy scrap, battery materials, plating residues and spent catalysts.”

The full 50-page Glencore climate report can be viewed on this web page.