Dowa Mining has announced that it is to establish a new precious metals recycling firm in the US that will target pgms.

The firm says that it intends to recover platinum and other pgms from automotive catalytic convertors.

Dowa Mining will command a 51 per cent stake with the remainder of the capital being provided by Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo KK and Toyota Tsusho.

Using specifically manufactured technology Dowa will pulverise the catalyst from exhaust systems, recovering the platinum from the waste.

Until now Dowa has carried all its processing in Japan, with 50% of material shipped from the US. By setting up a new operation in the US, Dowa should see time and cost benefits. The duration of the recovery process is forecast to fall by 75 per cent, and processing capacity will be doubled.

Dowa, which already processes 300 tons of used catalyst a month, says that its operations will begin next August.