Elemental Group: recovering strategic metals through urban mining
Elemental Group is a global producer, headquartered in Luxembourg, of strategic metals and a leader in urban mining.
The group recovers, refines and repurposes strategic metals from used devices and catalysts, strengthening sustainable supply chains and contributing to the circular economy. Urban mining is simply more efficient than traditional mining: processing 1 ton of spent catalysts saves mining approximately 150 tons of ore.
Elemental Group extracts platinum group metals from spent automotive ceramic catalysts. The group achieves recovery rates of up to 95%, using pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical technologies to recover rhodium, palladium and platinum in metallic form.
Waste electric and electronic equipment is another source of useful metals. Elemental Group companies are paid by WEEE recovery organisations to collect and recycle electronic waste such as fridges, screens, LED lamps and computers in line with EU regulations, and the companies then sell the materials they have recovered. Printed circuit boards are present in most electronic devices, and nickel, silver, gold and tin can be recovered from them.
The group also recovers non-ferrous metals from scrap metal.
Another focus is batteries. Elemental Group has built the first comprehensive automotive battery recycling plant in the EU. The plant in Poland is designed to process lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles and other waste containing precious metals.
Processes over 42 000 tons of printed circuit boards each year.
Handles more than 110 000 tons of electronic waste and over 7 000 tons of spent automotive catalysts each year.
Processes over 12 000 tons of lithium-ion batteries each year.
Built the second largest platinum group metal refining facility in the EU, located in Zawiercie, Poland.
Currently meets 20% of Europe’s needs for platinum group metals, and aims to increase that to 70%.