Heraeus Precious Metals, fully owned by the German-based Heraeus Group, has over 170 years of history in the world of precious metals, specifically gold, silver and PGMs

Today, Heraeus Precious Metals is a global leader in precious metal services such as recycling, refining and trading of precious metals and offers an innovative and comprehensive product portfolio which services various industries including the automotive, chemicals, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, hydrogen and jewellery industry.

Heraeus Precious Metals covers the full value chain of precious metals, with the exception of mining, and employs 2,600 employees in 15 recycling, manufacturing and trading sites around the globe.

Although PGMs are beneficial to our society, in many ways their processing contributes to CO2 emissions and thus to global warming. At Heraeus Precious Metals we are aware of this and we have a clear understanding of our responsibility and has embarked on an extremely ambitious programme to lead the precious industry into a more sustainable future.

We are aiming to become the first precious metals company to operate carbon neutral for scope 1 and 2 GHGs by 2025, which we will achieve through the following initiatives:

• Improve our CO2 efficiency in our existing processes by 20% from our 2019 baseline year.
• All our sites operate with 100% green electricity by the end of 2025, which includes solar panel installations at all sites worldwide by 2023 and investing in our own solar or wind parks or engaging in long-term power purchase agreements.
• We will operate without fossil fuels by 2033, which implies fundamental changes to our processes and infrastructure.

In 2023 we will reduce our global CO2 footprint by more than 15% from 2022. Our site in Izmir (Turkey) is already operating carbon neutral. Our PGM chemicals processing plant in Port Elisabeth (SA) is currently extending its solar plant with the goal to produce up to 40% of its energy needs starting in 2023. At our largest site in Hanau (Germany) we will be reducing the requirement for natural gas by 12% over the next two years by re-engineering our processing infrastructure.

We also have clear goals for our very substantial scope 3 emissions. Within the next 10 years we are aiming to reduce scope 3 emissions by more than 35%, which will require close cooperation with our mining partners. Our relationship with Northam, which has lasted for over 20 years, plays a very important role in this regard. As industry partners, our roadmaps are closely aligned and we fully support Northam’s sustainability plans going forward.

We at Heraeus Precious Metals acknowledge our responsibility with regards to decarbonization. We see this as a key differentiating factor for our future positioning in the precious metal markets.