Aurubis to Open $800 Million Metal Recycling Plant in Georgia, Creating 200 Jobs

Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp, first lady Marty Kemp, Aurubis CEO Toralf Haag, and various local officials will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony this Friday. The plant is projected to create over 200 local jobs and will process more than 180,000 tons of complex recycling materials annually, such as printed circuit boards and insulated copper cables.

The facility will specialize in secondary copper smelting, recycling scrap metals from items like piping, motors, and computers, and transforming them into reusable materials for manufacturing new products. This sets Aurubis apart from the three existing copper smelters in the U.S., which are located in Arizona and Utah and smelt copper directly from mining operations.

Initially announced as a $340 million investment in November 2021, with the goal of creating 125 jobs, the project has since expanded. In 2023, Aurubis partnered with German metal and machinery firm SMS Group GmbH to assist in building a second plant module at the Augusta facility, increasing its capacity and potential impact on the local economy.