Local, state, federal and German officials in Augusta on Friday welcomed a $340 million copper recycling and smelting plant that they said exemplifies greener industry and Georgia’s economic focus on the growing electric vehicle market.

“Welcome to the future,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in remarks to about 100 people at Augusta Corporate Park for the ceremonial groundbreaking. Aurubis CEO Roland Harings said the 125-employee facility is slated to start production in January 2024.

Three copper smelting facilities already operate in the United States – two in Arizona and one in Utah. But all three smelt copper that is directly mined. Augusta’s Aurubis facility will smelt copper extracted from items such as pipes, wiring and computers, then form the copper into large sheets for manufacturers to use in their finished products.

Electric vehicles an industry driver

One finished product that has heightened Georgia’s global economic interest is electric vehicles. While traditional liquid-fuel cars typically contain 18-49 pounds of copper, hybrid EVs contain about 85 pounds and, for plug-in hybrid EVs, 132 pounds, according to the Copper Development Association, the information services arm of the copper industry.

Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said Friday in Augusta that his trip to Aurubis’ global headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, helped steer the state’s decision to sharpen its focus on “the electrification of the auto industry.”

In the past six months, Georgia has announced that EV manufacturers Rivian and Hyundai would open vehicle production plants in the state.

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These, along with Aurubis, “are long-term strategic investments in the EV supply chain that are going to pay generational returns to their respective communities, and really also the state and the world,” Wilson said.

“The recycling component and the supply chain component of companies like Aurubis is only going to grow,” Kemp said Friday. “This is just a decades-long start to what is going to be a very successful business model with this great company here, and more to follow, I believe.”

What will the Aurubis Richmond plant do?

The plant, dubbed Aurubis Richmond, will process about 90,000 tons of complex recycling materials annually to extract about 35,000 tons of blister copper, according to Aurubis.

Aurubis Richmond will be the company's second facility in the United States. Aurubis Buffalo employs about 650 workers at an upstate New York plant that produces copper and brass sheets for products such as roofing copper and brass hose nozzles.

Copper is one of the most sought-after metals in the world because of its malleability and conductive properties, and as a strengthening component in alloys.

Copper is “one of the few materials that can be recycled repeatedly without any loss of performance,” and there is no quality difference between mined copper and recycled copper, according to the Copper Alliance, a nonprofit industry advocate.

Copper closed at $4.12 per pound in global market trading Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Aurubis Richmond recycled-copper smelter will be the nation's first