Metallium eyes $60B metals recycling market

Metallium (ASX: MTM; US-OTC: MTMCF) is advancing one of the first large-scale metals recovery plants in the United States to commissioning in December as it considers rolling out its modular design to tackle a $60-billion (C$83-billion) a year market. 

The Perth, Australia-based company has ordered key equipment, secured 60 tonnes of printed circuit board scrap feedstock and progressed site works near Houston, it said Monday. The work has “materially de-risked” the plant which is to use flash joule heating (FJH), a single-step electro-thermal method, Metallium said in a release.

Formerly known as MTM Critical Metals, Metallium hasn’t disclosed a specific capital cost for its Texas plant. However, Pitt Street Research said last month a A$50-million (C$44.8 million) raising in June is funding the build and management says the project remains on time and on budget. 

The company aims to process 350 to 400 tonnes of e-waste and mining concentrate feed per year in an initial design to recover gold, silver, palladium, rhodium, antimony, gallium, germanium and rare earths. The plant will stand among the few commercial-scale facilities in North America although it’s small versus global competitors. Metallium outlined a modular U.S. rollout plan, with sites under consideration in Louisiana, Florida, Nevada and Ohio.

“Our ambition is to leverage the FJH modular system design so that we can rapidly expand this model across the United States, targeting pre-permitted sites strategically located near major e-waste collection centres,” CEO Michael Walshe said. “Every step we are taking now, from engineering to feedstock readiness, is about building a robust, scalable platform capable of processing a diverse range of critical and precious metals.”

Shares triple

Shares in Metallium closed at A72¢ apiece on Tuesday losing its A4¢ gain the day before to value the company at A$424.7 million. But the shares have nearly tripled this year from A26¢ in January. 

The global tech metals market – covering specialty elements like rare earths, lithium, cobalt and gallium used in electronics and clean energy – is worth about $20-25 billion a year, according to a Metallium presentation. The e-waste recycling market is larger at roughly $40-45 billion, reflecting both the value of recovered metals and the volume of discarded electronics, it said. 

Putting the Texas plant in a global context, the United Kingdom’s Royal Mint facility in Wales is designed to process around 4,000 tonnes of circuit boards a year, while Australia’s Mint Innovation is targeting about 3,000 tonnes annually using biological leaching. Most U.S. e-waste continues to be exported or processed abroad, leaving domestic capacity limited.

The FJH method, developed at nearby Rice University, has shown recovery rates of 100% for gold, 97% for silver, and 98% for antimony in high-grade feedstocks. Permitting for the Texas plant’s air and water quality, waste management and the balance-of-plant engineering are advancing, Metallium said. It has contracted Entergy Texas (NYSE: ETR) for long-term power supply.

The company has also highlighted collaborations with Vedanta, Indium, and electronics recyclers to secure feedstock and develop commercial opportunities across a range of critical materials.