Cyclic Materials joins Glencore in recycled copper offtake agreement
Copper extracted from electronic scrap by Cyclic Materials will be refined further by Glencore, advancing copper circularity
Cyclic Materials has signed a multi-year offtake agreement with Glencore for the supply of copper produced at its Spoke operations. Under the terms of the agreement, Cyclic Materials will provide high-quality copper, which is extracted and processed from recycled electronic scrap. Glencore will further process and refine this copper at the Horne Smelter and Canadian Copper Refinery into copper cathode that can be reutilized in new end-products.
The companies say this strategic partnership aims to advance sustainable practices in the rare earths industry and drive copper circularity while addressing the growing demand for securing recycled materials central to the energy transition.
"We share Cyclic Materials' vision to create a circular supply chain for the materials required for the energy transition," says Kunal Sinha, global head of recycling at Glencore. "Adding Cyclic Materials as a partner broadens the scope of our recycling activities in this field as we will now receive copper materials from electric motors, in addition to other metals we already recycle such as battery materials. We see Cyclic Materials filling a critical gap in the market with their focus on rare earth recovery, a much-needed solution to further drive sustainability in critical materials."
Reducing waste through promoting responsible use of all available resources
This partnership marks a significant effort in transforming the global approach to recycling critical materials and maximizing supply chain resilience, providing a sustainable local alternative, say the companies. Recycling and reusing valuable materials like copper, as opposed to discarding the hidden sources of the material in electronic waste and industrial byproducts, helps to offset the footprint of resource extraction.
"We are excited to be partnering with Glencore on the recycling of copper materials. This is a significant milestone in establishing key partners to purchase our recycled materials and close the loop for all critical materials we will produce," says Ahmad Ghahreman, co-founder and CEO of Cyclic Materials. "We're eager to further partner with Glencore and expand our offtake agreements for the primary materials we will recover, prior to ramping up our operations to global commercial scale, opening new facilities in the U.S. and in Europe to better serve our partners where they are."
