cost of setting up an ewaste plant

**msmoorad** · 07-30-2017, 07:03 AM

im trying to convince a few wealthy guys i know, to invest in an ewaste plant in Durban.

currently, almost all the ewaste generated in South Africa gets shipped out to Europe etc for extracting & refining the precious metals

what id like to know is approx how much would it cost to set up an operation like that?

Durban is a big city- around 3.5 million inhabitants within its greater area & since theres nothing really like this in the country, im sure that stuff from other cities will come to this plant.

pls advise.

this is all hypothetical at this stage but im hoping something comes of it- so i can get myself a decent, stable job.

**missouri** · 07-30-2017, 07:16 AM

The sky is the limit on what it could cost. I was talking to a company that is growing by leaps and bounds. They told me that you could spend 3 to 4 million. For a smaller set up .

**msmoorad** · 07-30-2017, 07:20 AM

from what i see/know... money is NOT a problem at all- i just want to be sure that i know what im taking about when i make my pitch.

local govt & natl govt will most likely be involved because this will lead to job creation & cleaning up the environment.

**Swampy** · 07-30-2017, 08:09 AM

I have no idea what the cost would be overall, but I would think the the two biggest costs out of the gate will be land / plant acquisition and equipment. If you choose to lease an existing facility, that would eliminate the cost of buying land and building a facility. On the equipment side, that would depend on the type of operation you will be running. In general, you will be receiving material, processing material, and selling material. Each of these processes will have several sub-components (for example, receiving material: will you have your own vehicles hauling material? Buy those vehicles or lease them? Hire third party haulers?, etc.). The processing part will be the most expensive I would think because depending on what you're doing (and the scale), this could involve millions of dollars.

Also, you will want to keep in mind you will need some money to fund operations ("working capital") for a period of time until you generate cash flow sufficient to operate. Beyond just the costs of plant and equipment, therefore, you will need some additional funds.

With no other facility in the entire country, it sounds like one hell of an opportunity, and worth your time to work on a business plan.

**Patriot76** · 07-30-2017, 10:30 AM

Given the information you have provided, I would PM ewasted immediately for his insight, expertise, and contacts. Given the size and scope of your dream, his consulting fees would be minimal compared to the profit potential you could foresee in this endeavor. A public forum is not the place to discuss the secrets of a business plan, other consultants needed, and the benefits of working with the local and country governments. I would be happy to share my insights in PM's.

Since you posted this idea on a public forum, you are under a time crunch as others may try to steel your idea. This is not something you want to sit around and dream about, you need to get after it ASAP. Good luck.

**alloy2** · 07-31-2017, 01:13 AM

Originally Posted by msmoorad

im trying to convince a few wealthy guys i know, to invest in an ewaste plant in Durban.

currently, almost all the ewaste generated in South Africa gets shipped out to Europe etc for extracting & refining the precious metals

what id like to know is approx how much would it cost to set up an operation like that?

Durban is a big city- around 3.5 million inhabitants within its greater area & since theres nothing really like this in the country, im sure that stuff from other cities will come to this plant.

pls advise.

this is all hypothetical at this stage but im hoping something comes of it- so i can get myself a decent, stable job.

Your money bunnies would have already picked up on your lack of knowledge, they'll hire a consultant, build the plant and maybe just maybe hire you as the night janitor.

Should have done your research before opening the barn door.

At this time is just hypothetical, but I've been down that road.

Wanted to build a plant to remove the plastic insulation from telephone cable, you know the large cables about 2 to 3 inches in diameter with hundreds of wires inside. Just so happens that MEK ( Methyl Ethel Ketone ) dissolves the plastic.

The copper wire would have been placed inside a vessel capable of holding several tons, air evacuated then a nitrogen atmosphere introduced before adding the MEK, if the solvent became to saturated to hold more solids then it would be drawn off into another vessel for distillation to recover the MEK.

A saturated MEK solution would have been replaced wiht a fresh load, of this fresh charge was not completely saturated when the copper was eventually cleaned of plastic this charge would have been reintroduced into the next load of copper wire.

Instead of distilling the discharged MEK, some of or all of the byproduct dissolved plastic could have been packaged and sold as PVC cement used for joining PVC pipe. Had the MEK been distiled for recovery the plastic resins left behind could have been resold.

My brain is not functioning very well, perhaps I'll finish this story another day.

Good luck with your e-waste plant.

**Swampy** · 07-31-2017, 07:58 AM

Your money bunnies would have already picked up on your lack of knowledge, they'll hire a consultant, build the plant and maybe just maybe hire you as the night janitor.

Should have done your research before opening the barn door.

You post a lot of things that are just obnoxious. If you're so smart, why don't you share something useful instead of being a @$$hole?

**msmoorad** · 07-31-2017, 09:17 AM

nah, i dont care either way
im VERY thick skinned

and i dont think he meant to insult me
just the way he is
speaks his mind

anyways, back to business
i found out that there are ewaste extracting & refining facilities in the country but they are small and located in the Johannesburg area
which is about 650kms away.

lets see what happens...

if it doesnt work out, life goes on
its not the end of the world

**armygreywolf** · 07-31-2017, 11:07 AM

3.5 million people, you would be more likely to come across small appliances AND computers, so being able to profitably deal with both is in your best interest.

You will need 3 things immediately. A building able to house 30-60 days worth of incoming material from a major metropolis like your area. Two you need a tear down area, fully equipped with the best and fastest tools available, and the people to man it. You will need racking, pallets, gaylords, forklifts, scales etc for this area as well as an inventory management system. 3 is a big one. Machinery. Once youve determined your product OUTPUTS you can purchase machines 100% over that number for processing. shredders, separators, granulators, balers, etc. You will need to sign contracts with scrap yards too, and they will require material be spec'd accordingly. Wire chopping is likely in your arena at that size, a good chop line can cost in excess of 1 million USD.

But you heard it from me, I've built two companies for this purpose now. Stagnant inventory is what will cost you, build up and build out to handle ALL your dismantling and seperating needs, it's an intensive process and no, for the most part it cannot be done solely by machines.

**alloy2** · 07-31-2017, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by msmoorad

nah, i dont care either way
im VERY thick skinned

and i dont think he meant to insult me
just the way he is
speaks his mind

anyways, back to business
i found out that there are ewaste extracting & refining facilities in the country but they are small and located in the Johannesburg area
which is about 650kms away.

lets see what happens...

if it doesnt work out, life goes on
its not the end of the world

Might be worth the price of a plane ticket, first arrange fro a tour of a e-waste plant.

If they'll allow pictures take many, take noted and make sure your pocket recorder is on.

A fellow from Germany started up Exnor a company that specializes in e-waste and refining in Winkler Manitoba, some background on the community, it's hugely populated with Minnonights of yes German ethnicity. So right off the batt you know the company didn't land there by chance.

Dealing with people of a similar background and language paved the road for permits, Winnipeg a much larger city a stone through away, had our entrepreneur tried to establish his operation there would be still tied up in red tape.

Exner E-Waste Processing inc.

I think that Exner would be a good study, compute the total floor space, the receiving area, equipment used and placement. Not sure if Exner refines in house or sends the cons out, if I were you I would consider sending the concentrates out for refining done outside with a coper refinery this will give you a bit of leeway with your financiers. As it will give your money guys some outside accountability.

Your concentrates at the end of the final process will be about 95% copper the remainder precious metals and for this reason best to have a copper refinery do the refining, I believe there is a large copper refinery in Africa, A lot of catalytic converters are shipped from North America to one of the copper smelters in Africa, the converters are added to the smelt, the copper acts as a collector for the precious metals.

Back to the Exner plant, now that you have the square footage and layout time to do a spreadsheet get your ducks lined up, make a powerpoint presentation that will hammer your point. Make sure each investor has a copy.

Now for the important stuff, compute your start up costs then amortize your equipment, the building lease, employee wages and benefits, office supplies, vehicles ( purchase or lease ) waste disposel etc. then .go to kitco for historical graphs for copper, gold, silver, platinum, palladium etc. You'll be at the mercy od how volatile the markets have performed you'll need to establish a baseline.

Once your satisfied with the numbers you'll be able to give your investors an idea on what to expect for yearly return on their investment.

If at all possible find a retired business mentor to coach you Home

**alloy2** · 07-31-2017, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by Swampy

Your money bunnies would have already picked up on your lack of knowledge, they'll hire a consultant, build the plant and maybe just maybe hire you as the night janitor.

Should have done your research before opening the barn door.

You post a lot of things that are just obnoxious. If you're so smart, why don't you share something useful instead of being a @$$hole?

I qualify both for being obnoxious and an @$$hole, a status that isolates me from ignorant people.

**msmoorad** · 07-31-2017, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by alloy2

Might be worth the price of a plane ticket, first arrange fro a tour of a e-waste plant.

If they'll allow pictures take many, take noted and make sure your pocket recorder is on.

A fellow from Germany started up Exnor a company that specializes in e-waste and refining in Winkler Manitoba, some background on the community, it's hugely populated with Minnonights of yes German ethnicity. So right off the batt you know the company didn't land there by chance.

Dealing with people of a similar background and language paved the road for permits, Winnipeg a much larger city a stone through away, had our entrepreneur tried to establish his operation there would be still tied up in red tape.

Exner E-Waste Processing inc.

I think that Exner would be a good study, compute the total floor space, the receiving area, equipment used and placement. Not sure if Exner refines in house or sends the cons out, if I were you I would consider sending the concentrates out for refining done outside with a coper refinery this will give you a bit of leeway with your financiers. As it will give your money guys some outside accountability.

Your concentrates at the end of the final process will be about 95% copper the remainder precious metals and for this reason best to have a copper refinery do the refining, I believe there is a large copper refinery in Africa, A lot of catalytic converters are shipped from North America to one of the copper smelters in Africa, the converters are added to the smelt, the copper acts as a collector for the precious metals.

Back to the Exner plant, now that you have the square footage and layout time to do a spreadsheet get your ducks lined up, make a powerpoint presentation that will hammer your point. Make sure each investor has a copy.

Now for the important stuff, compute your start up costs then amortize your equipment, the building lease, employee wages and benefits, office supplies, vehicles ( purchase or lease ) waste disposel etc. then .go to kitco for historical graphs for copper, gold, silver, platinum, palladium etc. You'll be at the mercy od how volatile the markets have performed you'll need to establish a baseline.

Once your satisfied with the numbers you'll be able to give your investors an idea on what to expect for yearly return on their investment.

If at all possible find a retired business mentor to coach you Home

the part in bold is EXACTLY what i was thinking about

just got a promising response from a govt owned corp today- the main guy in charge of recycling asked me to send in my CV/resume
these guys have HUGE budgets.

i had emailed him and quite a few senior ppl in local & natl govt a few days ago
introduced myself & explained that i have lots of ideas about recovering precious metals from ewaste but no way to act upon them.

**auminer** · 07-31-2017, 05:07 PM

BAH!!!

I need your ""money bunnies"" here in Dallas-Ft.Worth.

I'm finding out that DFW is THE SUCK for ewaste buyers. It's a sad day when I'll get just about the same in my pocket at the end of the transaction shipping ~1000 pounds of boards to Ohio as I would driving that same 1000# to the very highest paying buyer I can find within 100 miles of a 7 million person metropolitan area. Most buyers I've called today pay barely over half what the buyer in Ohio pays for the exact same boards.

Actually, perhaps I shouldn't post this, as he might well lower his pricing in response.

Sad, but if I could regularly put together enough to fill a trailer, I could quit my day job & just haul PCBs from DFW to Cleveland.

**JJinLV** · 07-31-2017, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by auminer

BAH!!!

I need your ""money bunnies"" here in Dallas-Ft.Worth.

I'm finding out that DFW is THE SUCK for ewaste buyers. It's a sad day when I'll get just about the same in my pocket at the end of the transaction shipping ~1000 pounds of boards to Ohio as I would driving that same 1000# to the very highest paying buyer I can find within 100 miles of a 7 million person metropolitan area. Most buyers I've called today pay barely over half what the buyer in Ohio pays for the exact same boards.

Same here in Las Vegas. The yards here will only take motherboards and not at a good price. No one else will pay anything at all for them.

**alloy2** · 07-31-2017, 08:14 PM

After the Japanese were defeated in WWII and the country was struggling to get back on her feet. They had sent delegates to American factories to observe to inner workings. It was later found that the delegates had been equipped with special soft soled shoes designed to pick up metal particles from the shop floors.

The metal particles latter examined for alloy composition.

Remember all is fair in love and war.

**eesakiwi** · 08-01-2017, 02:38 AM

This American had a lot to do with the Japanese manufacturing revival. One of the most impressive people I have known of actually.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

This guys another one

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate

And..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Michener

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_B._Hicks

**msmoorad** · 08-01-2017, 04:01 AM

at the end of it all
if all i get is a decent, stable permanent job, then i still will be better off than i am right now.
i dont care if someone "steals" all my ideas etc bcos right now thats all they are- ideas

at least this way i get paid more than im currently earning & i get to see my ideas in action & hopefully become a part of something exciting.

by the way- you guys get paid more than double(i mean that literally) what we guys get paid for ewaste here in South Africa
ive been working out the prices that ewasted posts.

i wonder who is making all the money in the ewaste field here in SA.

**Swampy** · 08-01-2017, 05:37 AM

Originally Posted by alloy2

I qualify both for being obnoxious and an @$$hole, a status that isolates me from ignorant people.

Nope, it puts you right in their midst.

**Trigger** · 08-01-2017, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by msmoorad

at the end of it all
if all i get is a decent, stable permanent job, then i still will be better off than i am right now.
i dont care if someone "steals" all my ideas etc bcos right now thats all they are- ideas

at least this way i get paid more than im currently earning & i get to see my ideas in action & hopefully become a part of something exciting.

by the way- you guys get paid more than double(i mean that literally) what we guys get paid for ewaste here in South Africa
ive been working out the prices that ewasted posts.

i wonder who is making all the money in the ewaste field here in SA.

Send me a message. I can help you with your ewaste projected business startup.

**msmoorad** · 08-01-2017, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by Trigger

Send me a message. I can help you with your ewaste projected business startup.

thanks for the offer.
let me reach a stage where i know for sure 100% that somethings gonna happen- no sense getting too excited all for nothing.

cost of setting up an ewaste plant

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