Financing has been secured for a reduction furnace to be installed at Weser-Metall's facility in Nordenham, Germany. According to an announcement late last week from Weser-Metall's parent company Recylex SA, amendments to the operating permit for the smelter on the site was the final condition to be met before the €67m financing package for its German subsidiaries with a German bank consortium could be finalised.
Some €40m of the borrowings will go toward a new reduction furnace at Weser-Metall GmbH. The furnace is intended to improve the sustainable profitability of the concern's lead segment by allowing it to process certain smelter by-products in-house, thereby increasing its silver and lead yields considerably. According to Recylex, the investment will improve the industrial flexibility of the lead smelter, as it will be able to process primary and secondary materials that have a lower lead content, but are more profitable. This would allow the company to optimise and expand its material sourcing opportunities, said Recylex
The Franco-German metals group expects Weser-Metall's investments to raise the group's lead output by 30,000 tonnes. The company reported that it currently sends the by-products it plans to process itself in the future to third parties for recovery. Construction for the furnace is to begin in the first quarter of 2017, with operational testing scheduled to start in the first half of 2018. In addition to the €40 designated for the new furnace, a further €10m is to be invested in Recylex's German subsidiaries.
