The U.K. firm Ultromex Ltd. has secured £550,000 (US$888,000) in funding from The North West Fund for Energy & Environmental, which is managed by CT Investment Partners, to help the company grow its business to extract metals from electronic scrap. To accomplish this, the company is building an 8,000 metric tons per year plant in Ellesmere Port, U.K.

Ultromex has developed a process to recover high-value metals from electronic and industrial waste products. The company, founded by Jonathan Quinn and Harry Middleton in 2011, aims to increase turnover to £10 million (US$15.9 million) by 2016.

The business works in partnership with global metal recycling and industrial businesses, helping them to recover metals more efficiently, while lowering energy use and emissions. To accomplish this, the company is currently commercializing processes to recover metals from printed circuit boards and lead from leaded glass.

The North West Fund for Energy & Environmental is part of The North West Fund, which is financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.

Ultromex, based in Birkenhead, will use the funding to develop a process for recycling catalysts, industrial sludges and dross and residual mine tailings.

In a release, Quinn says, "Working with The North West Fund for Energy and Environmental will enable us to develop our technologies even further. Our products are focused on the specialized processes and refining segments of the market. They allow businesses to recover more metals at lower operating costs, while simultaneously increasing their energy efficiency and lowering their carbon emissions."

Adam Workman, a partner at CT Investment Partners and manager of The North West Fund for Energy & Environmental, notes, "Metal recycling is a worldwide industry with more than 400 million metric tons of metals worth £200 billion every year.

"Ultromex is a fantastic investment opportunity. The market for recycled metals has shown steady growth over the past 15 years and we expect this trend to continue further in the coming years."

Equipment company Columbus McKinnon has delivered a dual speed shredder, 2R Liberator and zero waste system to Coffee County, Ala. The tire recycling equipment system will be installed by the county and handle the old tires in the county.

The funding for the equipment came from the county recently being awarded a grant by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to build a regional tire processing center in Elba, Ala. According to a release, the county chose equipment from CM to provide the tire recycling equipment.

The CM tire recycling system is designed to produce a variety of products including tire-derived fuel (TDF) and clean steel and wire-free crumb rubber feedstock to be further processed for mulch and playground markets. The center will collect and recycle all of the tire wire removed from the processed tires. CM has delivered the complete system in October.

The state of Alabama generates about 4.5 million tires each year. According to CM, prior to the tire shredding system the only solution for scrap tires in the county was to collect the tires and to bury them in neighboring Covington County.

Sims Metal Management Ltd. has advised the market that it has identified that the carrying value of inventory at its U.K. business has been overstated. According to a Sims statement, the inventory in question is predominately associated with Sims Recycling Solutions locations in Long Marston and Newport.

The statement notes that the company believes the inventory adjustment to be around $60 million and relates to both changes in the assessment of the net realizable value of certain stock and to book-to-physical adjustments. The company’s preliminary findings indicate the situation has arisen in the context of control failures and potential fraudulent conduct by local and regional plant management responsible for technology and downstream processing systems in the U.K.

A special committee of Sims’ board has been formed to take responsibility for the investigation. The committee is headed by chairman Geoff Brunsdon. The committee also includes Gerald Morris, Jim Thompson, Heather Ridout and John DiLacqua.

The committee will also be responsible for understanding where the breakdowns in the company's control environment occurred, what initiatives will need to be taken to improve those controls, as well as overseeing the implementation of the recommendations it makes. The committee will also determine what action will be taken in relation to any employees or third parties determined to be responsible. The committee will have access to whatever external support it requires.

The Shredder Company (TSC), based in Texas, has announced the sale of a 124 SXS Shredder System to privately owned Norstar Steel, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. This shredder system will use an 8,000-horsepower motor system and a split ferrous separation system. It is scheduled to be delivered during the third quarter of 2013 and is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2013.

 

A TSC 124 SXS shredder system installation in China

In a release, TSC says that the shredder is the tenth 124 SXS shredder system that it has sold. The company notes that the system follows the company’s standards for efficient casting consumption and ease of maintenance for the rotor and double-feed roll (DFR) systems.

The release notes that the Sailah family, which owns Norstar Steel, is a dynamic group which runs an extremely efficient scrap business. TSC says, “We believe (they) are some of the best in the business regarding total personnel in comparison to total tonnage collected, processed and shipped on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis."

The TSC shredder will replace an existing 3,000-horsepower shredder the company presently operates. In addition to the site where the shredder will be installed, Norstar Steel operates a number of feeder yards that will supply the shredder with the raw material.

According to TSC, the new shredder system is the next step in the growth of the Norstar group and it fits the model of processing and shipping all incoming scrap daily to maximize return on investment and daily cash flow at a lower total cost per ton and with fewer man hours.