Noranda Inc. announced plans to expand its recycling activities with the opening of a new subsidiary, Noranda Recycling Inc. (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. The facility is located in Penang, Malaysia. Noranda Recycling Malaysia was created to provide enhanced local service to existing Noranda customers and strengthen the company's global service offerings to original equipment manufacturers in the electronics industry looking for worldwide recycling solutions.
Noranda is one of the world's largest recyclers of electronics, operating four plants in the United States and one in Brampton, Ontario, Canada dedicated to electronics recycling.
The Malaysia office will source copper and precious metal-bearing scrap streams from electronics manufacturers in Asia. These materials will be shipped to Noranda's recycling facilities in San Jose, Calif., and East Providence, R.I. for sampling, then sent as feed to Noranda’s Horne, Quebec smelter.
"Noranda's recycling processes ensure that unwanted electronic hardware is recycled in a way that conserves resources and promotes sustainable development," said Claude Ferron, president, Canadian Copper and Recycling. "We have invested in the technical and environmental infrastructure required to recover metals in an environmentally responsible manner. Our expansion into Asia increases our recycling service offering for our existing customers, and creates opportunities for new customers to use Noranda Recycling."
Noranda's Canadian Copper & Recycling business unit consists of the Horne custom copper smelter, the CCR copper and precious metals refinery in Montreal-East, Quebec and Falconbridge's Kidd Creek mine and Metallurgical division in Timmins, Ontario.
The recycling unit consists of the Brampton facility in Canada, two demanufacturing facilities located in Roseville, California and LaVergne, Tennessee, two sampling facilities located in California and Rhode Island, and one office in Penang, Malaysia.
Approximately 15 percent, around 100,000 metric tons, of the raw material feed for Noranda's primary Canadian copper and recycling operations is from recyclable materials. Gross value of the recyclables is more than $300 million annually.