Sibanye-Stillwater embraces recycling in its effort to reach carbon neutrality

Sibanye-Stillwater, a multinational mining and metals processing group headquartered in South Africa and one of the world’s largest primary producers of platinum, palladium and rhodium, has expanded its recycling footprint this year with the purchase of Abington Reldan Metals LLC (Reldan), a precious metals recycling business based in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, now known as Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan.

In 2017, Sibanye entered the recycling space with its purchase of Stillwater Mining Co., which operated a metallurgical and platinum group metals (PGM) recycling complex in Montana. The Columbus metallurgical complex is one of the world’s largest recyclers of PGMs derived from spent catalytic converters and other industrial sources in addition to developing, extracting and processing PGMs from a geological formation in south central Montana known as the J-M Reef.

Grant Stuart, Sibanye-Stillwater head of recycling – global operations, says Sibanye is aware of the impacts of climate change and knows Sibanye has a role to play in decarbonizing the planet. Additionally, in response to consumer expectations of environmental and social performance, the company has embraced recycling more formally through its purchase of Reldan.   

He cites that an ever-increasing number of socially and environmentally conscious brands  wants to ensure all the components that go into their products contain recycled content. “We want to position ourselves to supply that,” he says, adding that the purchase of environmental, social and corporate governance-, or ESG-, focused Reldan is the first strategic step that will enable the company to be a “force for good in the circular economy.”

Recycling enables producing PGMs and precious metals with five- to six-times less CO₂ emissions and using 60 percent to 70 percent less water, Stuart says.

Demand for PGMs is poised to grow in the short term as automakers increase production of hybrid vehicles before transitioning to mass production of battery electric vehicles. While he says electric vehicles (EVs) pose a threat to PGM demand, EVs have not taken off as anticipated. With hybrid vehicles being more likely in the near term, PGM pricing should benefit as these vehicles use more PGMs than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.

With its purchase of Reldan in March, Sibanye now has recycling capabilities in Pennsylvania, India and Mexico, in addition to the recycling of spent autocatalytic converters in Montana. Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan Mexico is in the Monterrey metropolitan area in northeastern Mexico, providing access to national and international markets. The facility is R2V3, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 and IMMEX certified. (IMMEX allows the import-tax- and Value Added Tax-free import of goods needed in an industrial process or service to produce, transform or repair foreign goods temporarily imported for subsequent export.) In India, Reldan formed a joint venture with ReSustainability, India’s largest integrated resource management company, known as Re Sustainability Reldan. The processing facility in Hyderabad, India, was completed in 2023 and is the first of its kind in the country. It provides thermal processing, mechanical reduction, pyrometallurgical processing and hydrometallurgical processing.

Michael Randolph, head of the Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan operations, says the company is a solutions-oriented business focused on addressing its customers’ needs. Since its purchase by Sibanye, he says the company has a “deeper bench of resources to tap into” to meet its aspirational visions.

Those aspirations include strategically positioning itself for the recycling of rare earth metals and other critical minerals, such as those found in lithium-ion batteries, Stuart says. While Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan handles materials that contain such elements, it hasn’t historically recovered them for recycling. “That will be next,” he says.

Randolph says the company already handles a diverse stream of end-of-life products that it recycles using other vendors. “We have access to and touch a lot of different diversified markets,” he says, noting that customers “don’t want 10 different downstream” vendors.

As a part of Sibanye, Randolf says the company now can get to an “R&D mindset” to develop in-house solutions for these materials.

He says Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan directly services a growing 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies and indirectly supports nearly 20 percent.

In addition to PGMs and gold, Sibanye mines battery metals through an equity investment into and partnership with Keliber Oy, a lithium hydroxide project in Finland. “If we’re mining lithium, why not recycle lithium,” Stuart says.

He also sees an opportunity in recycling fuel cells, several of which use PGMs, principally platinum, ruthenium and iridium, to catalyze their processes.  

Multiplying its efforts

The purchase of Reldan gives Sibanye the potential to expand the portfolio of metals it recycles in addition to expanding the geographic footprint of its recycling operations and where it participates in the value chain. Additionally, Reldan provides the company with a well-established market presence and skilled management team, Stuart says.

Randolph says Reldan’s presence in the gold and silver sectors is considerable, while Sibanye is a formidable presence in the PGM market. Together, the companies have synergies that enable Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan to serve all these sectors directly.

The company plans to optimize its operations as well as its role within the larger group and to invest in recovering rare earth elements and in greenfield or brownfield partnerships in new lines of service.

Daniel Lafferty, head of commercial and sales at Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan, says Sibanye’s willingness to invest in intellectual capital will benefit the company as it realizes recycling efficiencies that enable a lower carbon footprint. “This is a highly fragmented market,” he says. “It’s rare to find someone that can do it globally with one team. We are not 100 percent there but are much closer with the acquisition.”

Since the purchase closed March 15, Reldan’s integration into Sibanye-Stillwater has gone “extremely well,” Stuart says. “We are aligned on a shared vision and future.”

“A lot of people are talking about ESG at a high level,” Lafferty says. “We are on the ground working today with major OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] to provide real-world data to provide solutions.”

Armed with this information, he says, manufacturers can create products that are easier to recycle.

In terms of Sibanye’s purpose of sustainability through its metals, Stuart says Sibanye-Stillwater Reldan “reflects our aspiration to make a positive social and impact through the metals we recycle. We will help the company reach its goal of being carbon neutral by 2040. We are committed to responsible environmental practices. Our vision is to be a leader in superior value for our stakeholders.”