History
Exploring the potential of an extraordinary metal: copper
Cumerio is a new copper company resulting from the demerger of Umicore.
In the first part of the 20 th century, Umicore (in those times Union Minière) was involved in developing mineral resources in Congo and installed a copper refinery in Olen (Belgium).
Today, it is no longer active in the mining sector, but Cumerio still operates one of the most modern copper refineries at its Olen site in Belgium . This refinery has an annual capacity of 345,000 tons of cathodes, using the FSD (Full Size Deposit) process.
At the beginning of the 70's, Cumerio developed the Contirod© process, a continuous casting process for the production of copper wire rod. It owns two production lines, one in Belgium and the other in Italy, with a combined capacity of 450,000 tons per year. Over 30 Contirod© lines have been installed worldwide, representing a total capacity of 4.9 million tons.
At the end of 1997, Cumerio acquired the MDK smelter complex in Pirdop, Bulgaria. Its current annual capacity is 240,000 tons of anodes of which about 130,000 tons are delivered to the Olen refinery in Belgium. 60,000 tons are refined locally and the balance is sold to various markets in the region.
The main milestones are
| 1928 | First refined copper production in Olen: cathodes, wire-bars, ingots |
| 1953 | First casting of copper/ shapes (billets - cakes) |
| 1972 | Start-up of Contirod ® plant - nominal capacity: 100,000 tons/year |
| 1975 | Tankhouse capacity increased to 330,000 tons/year UMK - cathodes |
| 1981 | Capacity of Contirod ® (link) increased to 280,000 tons/year |
| 1990 | Acquisition of a Contirod ® line in Avellino , Italy with a capacity of 170,000 tons/year |
| 1996-1998 | Start-up of new tankhouse: 340,000 tons/year (ISA-FSD process) |
| 1996 | First production of oxygen free rod 'Foxrod' |
| 1997 | Acquisition of MDK - Pirdop, Bulgaria : Copper smelter and refinery |
| 2005 | Creation of Cumerio, a new copper company resulting from the demerger of Umicore. |
| 29 April 2005 | First listing on Euronext Brussels. |
| 14 April 2008 | The merger of NA with Cumerio was completed and created the largest integrated copper producer and processor in Europe. |