South Africa-linked Heraeus boosting global platinum group metals recycling capacity

Platinum group metal (PGM) products and services company Heraeus Precious Metals is investing €35-million in the expansion of its PGM recycling capacity at Hanau in Germany, with the buildout forming part of a €300-million global recycling programme.

Last year, additional recycling capacity development began in Wartburg, Tennessee, and Santa Fe Springs, California, and a plant to recover PGMs from spent automotive catalysts in Pinghu, China, together with the German chemicals company BASF. Also in China, a modern PGMs plant in Nanjing was opened by Heraeus in 2018.

Heraeus has a marketing and sales office in Boksburg as well as a PGM chemical compounds production and refinery facility in Gqeberha. The company is closely linked to Johannesburg-listed PGMs-mining company Northam Platinum and is involved in iridium thrifting research with Johannesburg- and New York-listed Sibanye-Stillwater. BASF also has a well-established South African presence.

At Hanau, Heraeus will be building several additional production lines, which will significantly increase its recycling capacities by 2026. The new lines will use electrolytic processes that reduce the use of chemicals and increase process efficiency.

Recycled PGMs have an up to 98% lower carbon footprint than mined PGMs and Hanau’s wet chemical process has the lowest carbon footprint of the recycling processes for PGMs, Heraeus states in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Demand is steadily increasing for recycled materials and circular solutions, driven by growing environmental awareness.

“We’re convinced that demand will continue to increase in the coming years. Only together can primary material from mines and secondary material from recycling meet global demand,” said Heraeus Precious Metals business line chemicals head Marius Vigener.

“Our plants are state-of-the-art. We recover precious metals from scrap materials almost completely and investment at the Hanau site enables us to meet the growing demand in Europe in particular,” Heraeus Precious Metals business line chemicals technical head Christian Mock added.

Learn more: Creamer Media’s Engineering News