Opening ceremony

On March 28th, Primobius took another important step with a grand opening event. The two joint venture partners, Neometals and SMS group, had invited guests from politics, business and the media to an official ceremony in which they gave the go-ahead for commercial operation of the battery recycling plant starting in May 2022.

Dr.-Ing. E. H. Heinrich Weiss Chairman of the Shareholders‘ Committee at SMS group opened the event and, in his opening address, particularly highlighted Hilchenbach as the birthplace of today’s SMS group as well as the place of origin of many outstanding technologies.

In a video message, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister of Economics, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), congratulated both joint venture partners on the success achieved so far and particularly on choosing Hilchenbach (NRW) as the location of the recycling plant.

Christopher Reed and his Neometals team covered the long way from Perth, Australia to Germany to attend this great ceremony. In his speech, Christopher Reed outlined the history of the fruitful partnership between SMS group and Neometals and called the opening of the first commercial plant just the start of a long journey together.

It was a privilege to welcome another Australian guest and speaker in Hilchenbach. The Australian Ambassador to Germany H.E. Philip Green pointed out the importance of recycling and circular economy and was very happy about this positive example of German-Australian relations.