Sofia Med plans a EUR 19.5 million copper recycling plant with EU Innovation Fund support

Copper and copper alloy producer Sofia Med plans to build a copper recycling plant at its existing site in Sofia, with a total investment of about EUR 19.49 million, BTA reported on 23 October. The project, called SVAROG, has passed the evaluation stage of the EU Innovation Fund's 2025 Net-Zero Technologies call and has been invited to proceed to grant preparation. The planned investment includes a proposed grant of EUR 6.20 million from the fund.

The facility is designed to process around 30,000 tonnes a year of complex, low-grade and mixed copper scrap, which is currently underused, and turn it into copper with a purity of more than 99.9%. According to the company, the plant will recover material that is now used mainly in lower-value applications or exported outside Europe.

The plant will use sensor-based cold sorting technology and artificial intelligence to optimise the refining process. The recycled copper will go directly to Sofia Med's existing foundry, replacing a significant share of the primary copper cathodes the company currently uses in production.

Sofia Med said replacing primary cathodes with recycled copper is central to the expected environmental benefits, because primary copper production generates substantially higher greenhouse gas emissions than refining secondary scrap. Project estimates put the avoided emissions at about 1.16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the first ten years of operation.

The company supplies rolled and extruded copper and copper alloy products to global markets. The investment is expected to increase Bulgaria's industrial recycling capacity and help keep copper resources in Europe for reuse in European manufacturing, the company said.

Grant preparation is the stage at which the Innovation Fund and the applicant agree the final terms before a grant agreement is signed. The timetable for construction will depend on the outcome of that process.