An $800 million plant in the Augusta Corporate Park that employs more than 200 people is now fully operational.
Aurubis Richmond, LLC held a ceremony to mark its “first melt,” the process of refining scrap metals for new uses.
“We’re talking about a broad variety of recycling materials that are typically end-of-life or production scrap. We’re talking about electronic scrap, printed circuit boards, metal shredders,” David Schultheis, President and Managing Director of the plant, told ABD. “Our main products here are blister copper and then a lot of other metals, including critical materials such as nickel, tin, and zinc.”
The facility, the first greenfield smelter for Aurubis in over 110 years, processes recycled materials like electronic scrap and incinerated bottom ashes, producing copper and critical metals that are up to 98% pure.
Toralf Haag, CEO of Aurubis AG, said there is currently very limited smelting capacity in the U.S. The plant will be the largest recycling smelter in the country.
“Right now, 50% of the copper scrap is exported to Asia, mostly to China,” he said. “Now we can keep it in the country, and we can recycle it. We can do small contributions to the circular economy when it comes to copper recycling materials, but also other materials. We also recycle more complex recycling materials, like circuit boards, cables.”
Production Supervisor Kristian Hughes joined Aurubis in February 2024.
“I was in the diesel engine assembly field, and I heard about them, and I saw that it was going to be the first of its kind. So, I came out here, and that blew my mind,” said Hughes. “We get all types of training, from learning the system, from top to bottom. We’ve even had access to seeing everything be installed, so we can know how everything works when the time comes.”
Congressman Rick Allen (R-GA12) said he was proud Aurubis chose Augusta as the site for this operation.
“Not only will this facility reinforce America’s ability to supply itself with the levels that help strengthen our national security, our infrastructure, and our technology leadership, but it also exemplifies how international partnerships, which are crucial, we can contribute to solidifying America’s industrial foundation,” he said.
The Wednesday ceremony bringing the plant online is just the first step. Aurubis is also working on phase two of the facility.
“Phase Two was approved in December 2022. It is essentially a copy and paste of what we already put in place,” he said. “It will double the capacity of this facility to over 180,000 tons of recycling material that we take in. And the first melt is planned there in Q1 (first quarter) 2026, so we’re actually quite close to that event, too.”
Since construction began, Aurubis has become involved with community activities and organizations, such as the United Way of the CSRA. Haag said they believe that if they invest in a region, they want to be part of the community.
“We not only want to invest in brick and mortar and machines. We also want to be part of the community,” he said. Aurubis has been in business for over 150 years, and wherever we build a plant, we also participate in the social life. We want to contribute to the community. That’s part of our values.”
As part of the ceremony, the company unveiled a large, copper medallion marking the occasion.
The facility aims to provide 70,000-80,000 tons of copper annually, addressing 10% of the U.S. supply gap.
