Umicore will invest some € 25 million in upgrading and expanding the sampling facility at its main precious metals recycling plant in Hoboken, Belgium. The investment will result in an even more flexible sampling process by increasing capacity and reducing throughput time, thereby supporting the growth of the business and allowing Umicore to react more rapidly to change in the supply mix. The investment will also make better use of space and create an improved working environment. This investment will be fully operational by mid 2013. Engineering studies have also been initiated to address further expansion needs in sampling and may result in additional investments in the following years.
Sampling and assaying are the first step in the recycling flow, prior to the treatment of the incoming material and the subsequent refining of the recovered metals. Determining the exact metal content of the supplied materials is essential as it forms the contractual basis for metal value payment or physical metal return to the supplier. An efficient and transparent sampling and assaying process is essential.
Koen Demesmaeker, Umicore’s Senior Vice-President of the Precious Metals Refining business unit, commented: “This investment demonstrates our on-going commitment to provide the best service to our customers and working environment to our employees. It will strengthen Umicore’s reputation as the world leader in the treatment of complex residues and end-of-life materials containing precious and specialty metals.”
Umicore is a global materials technology group. It focuses on application areas where its expertise in materials science, chemistry and metallurgy makes a real difference. Its activities are centred on four business areas: Catalysis, Energy Materials, Performance Materials and Recycling. Each business area is divided into market-focused business units offering materials and solutions that are at the cutting edge of new technological developments and essential to everyday life. Umicore generates the majority of its revenues and dedicates most of its R&D efforts to clean technologies, such as emission control catalysts, materials for rechargeable batteries and photovoltaics, fuel cells, and recycling. Umicore’s overriding goal of sustainable value creation is based on an ambition to develop, produce and recycle materials in a way that fulfils its mission: materials for a better life.
