Aurubis’ new advanced sludge processing (ASPA) plant in Beerse, Belgium has officially opened its doors to start production.
The ASPA plant will focus on processing precious metals and tin containing anode sludge from their electrolytic copper refining processes. Faster precious metal recovery, and full tin recovery from anode sludge will be achieved, improving metal recovery rates and circularity.
Tin is already an essential metal to the clean energy transition with existing uses in solar cells and electric vehicles and future uses in sodium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and more. The ASPA plant is an important step towards improving sustainability and recovery of tin and other metals from secondary sources.
Aurubis is one of the world’s largest copper recyclers globally, producing more than one million tonnes of copper cathodes per annum. They were also the 9th largest tin producer in 2023. The company are set to have another multi-metal recycling site in Georgia, USA.
Our view: E-waste is an important source for recycling in the copper circuit and currently also a growing feedstock for secondary tin supply. Tin from recycled sources, through technologies like the APSA process, is likely to be a faster route to increased supply than new mining projects.
