Posted on 28 Oct 2025
Anglo-Swiss commodity giant Glencore has officially opened a new sampling plant in the UK to expand its operations into copper-bearing waste recycling, Kallanish reports.
The £41 million ($54.6m) facility in Kent was launched by Glencore’s Britannia Refined Metals (BRM) to support critical mineral recovery. It has a capacity to sample up to 25,000 tonnes/year of waste, which will be shredded on site. BRM’s sample preparation facility will roast the shredded material through a tray furnace and an induction furnace to divide it into even smaller samples, ready for collection and chemical analysis.
The plan is to recover copper from automotive wires, e-scrap, and recycled appliances such as fridges and microwaves.
“BRM’s new sampling plant signals our commitment to working with our customers in recovering critical materials,” says Marc Bedard, head of zinc and metallurgical assets at Glencore. “The plant offers real potential to increase the lifecycle of these minerals.”
Glencore says its subsidiary, which processes around 160,000 t/y of lead, is part of its integrated mine-to-market value chain – from exploration and acquisition to processing, marketing, delivery and recycling.
Source:Kallanish
