Romco Group, Elemental Group form partnership

London-based Romco Group and Luxembourg-based Elemental Group have partnered to expand metals recycling in Africa.

Romco says the partnership will accelerate and diversify its existing growth plans by combining the companies’ resources in collection, preprocessing, smelting and trading of recycled base and precious metals. The partnership will expand Elemental’s business in spent autocatalyst recycling, electronic scrap recycling and lithium-ion battery recycling to Africa while accelerating expansion of Romco’s existing aluminum and copper recycling operations. Romco’s presence in West Africa will serve as an initial base for the partnership.

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“We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Elemental Group,” Romco CEO and founder Raymond Onovwigun says. “Romco’s vision has always been to lead the way in sustainable metals recycling in Africa, and this collaboration with Elemental will significantly enhance our ability to achieve that goal. … We see Elemental as a perfect pairing to drive scalability. By leveraging our combined expertise and resources, we will not only accelerate the expansion of Romco’s existing aluminum and copper recycling operations but also introduce innovative processes for other base and precious metals.

“This partnership exemplifies our commitment to delivering the highest quality secondary metals to our customers while keeping our environmental and social responsibilities front and center,” he adds.

The partnership initially will focus on producing aluminum, copper, platinum group metals and byproducts such as gold and silver.

“We have nothing but respect for the company Raymond and his team have built since 2016,” Elemental CEO and founder Pawel Jarski says. “Romco is the ideal partner for Elemental to start multimetal recycling in Africa."

Jarski says the opportunity for metals recycling in Africa is “immense." Through this partnership, the two companies are well-placed to deliver more recycled critical minerals to the continent.

“Thanks to our partnership with Romco Group, we have the unique opportunity to promptly enter two new, important markets: Nigeria and Ghana,” he says. “From the perspective of Elemental Group, our presence in Africa is a natural progression in the development of our global structure.”