Electronic waste, Nord Engineering acquires 60% of Btt Italia

To the Cuneo-based company that designs and produces intelligent bins the shares of the company that realised the precious metal recovery technology in Iren's new plant

by Sara Deganello

19 December 2024

I lingotti dei metalli preziosi recuperati dalle schede elettrotecniche

3' min read

Key points

Mining skills and smart waste management
In Italy WEEE collection at 30%.
90% of WEEE goes abroad

3' min read

Nord Engineering, a company from Cuneo that designs and builds smart systems for the collection of urban waste, has acquired from Lem Industries and Tcb 60% of Btt Italia, a company from Marciano della Chiana (Arezzo) that designs and builds plants for the recovery and refining of precious metals. The closing was signed in November, following an industrial partnership started in 2023 for the design of a container for the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment.

Mining Skills and Smart Waste Management

With the acquisition, the beginning and the end of the electronic waste (WEEE) recovery and treatment value chain in Italy are covered: with Nord Engineering's container, Btt italia's plants with hydrometallurgical technology - thus without waste-to-energy - such as Hydro B One, operating from 20 December 2024 in Tarranuova Bracciolini (Arezzo) and managed by Iren, refine precious metals present in electronic boards such as gold, platinum, palladium, silver and copper.

Btt Italia, 7 million euro turnover, has been developing customised solutions for the goldsmith industry, state mints and mines around the world since 1979, and now also for the recovery of WEEE through low-emission hydrometallurgical processes. Nord Engineering, 135 million turnover, based in Caraglio (Cuneo), has been on the market for 20 years and specialises in the smart waste management sector: its products are sold in some 20 countries worldwide. Now the acquisition will also bring synergies in its markets.

In Italy, 30% WEEE collection

As far as the collection of WEEE is concerned, in Italy in 2023 30.24% of the amount released for consumption was intercepted, a result far from the European target of 65% required by the European directive 2012/19 implemented by dl 49/2014, as certified by the latest WEEE Management Report. While Europe with the Critical Raw Materials Act (EU Regulation 2024/1252) of May 2024 sets a series of concrete targets to 2030 concerning the percentage of demand to be covered at household level: 10% for extraction, 40% for transformation and 15% for recycling.

According to an estimate by Teha for Iren, with eight hydrometallurgical technology plants per country by 2040, the amount of precious metals that would be refined would correspond to the maximum of what is recoverable out of the total amount of waste collected with a total value of refined gold estimated at around 130 million euro (at current values).

90 per cent of WEEE goes abroad

For Malachy Musso, CEO of Nord Engineering, 'with this acquisition, the "urban mining" supply chain is at the service of strategic sectors of the made-in-Italy industry. The current management of WEEE, in fact, often starts in an ineffective way due to a still insufficient awareness of the correct disposal. Moreover, a very high proportion of this waste goes abroad, around 90%. When we announced the industrial partnership between us and Btt Italia at the end of last year, it was clear to us that we needed to make it easier for citizens to return their WEEE and recover the precious metals in an environmentally sustainable way. Now we are starting to make an active contribution to reducing the foreign dependence of precious and strategic metals for chip production, automotive, defence and aerospace".

According to Daniele Gualdani of Lem Industries, "this operation rewards the last five years of research and development in which Btt Italia has invested resources, about 30% of its turnover," focusing on the circular economy. "Technology and innovative processes in the jewellery sector are our history; now they make us take a leap forward in the circular economy and environmental sustainability of which we are proud and which we put at the service of the country system. At the same time, BTT Italia and Nord Engineering are two companies with strong territorial roots and a great international vocation. The new ownership structure does not change anything in terms of employment and instead opens up a lot in terms of opportunities for both,' he added.

Development perspectives

Both companies operate in international markets, and with this operation they are pooling their business management, international sales network, and foreign offices in Spain, France, and South America. Not only: the development envisages the possibility that each city that will be equipped with Nord Engineering's bins could have a plant - modular, of various sizes - for the hydrometallurgical refining of metals from WEEE. Further development prospects that Btt Italia is studying include deep sea mining, recovery of coal and asbestos, treatment of germanium and bismuth, phosphor powders from fluorescent lamps, NiMH batteries, recycling of silver from disused photovoltaic panels, collection of radio-frequency identification (Rfid) technology..

Sara Deganelloredattrice
- LinkedIn
Luogo: Milano
Lingue parlate: italiano, inglese, tedesco
Argomenti: design, economia, cultura
Scheda autore
Trust project