The €19.49 million SVAROG project has been invited to grant preparation under the EU Innovation Fund, with a maximum grant amount of €6.20 million following evaluation.
The leading Bulgarian metallurgical manufacturer Sofia Med will develop and operate the SVAROG project, an innovative industrial copper recycling plant. The Next-Generation Copper Recycling Hub successfully passed the evaluation phase under the EU Innovation Fund’s 2025 Net-Zero Technologies Call and has been invited to grant preparation. Тhe planned investment totals approximately €19.49 million, with an envisaged Innovation Fund grant of €6.20 million.
Sofia Med will develop and operate the facility at its existing site in Sofia. Designed as a state of the art copper recycling plant, SVAROG will transform currently underutilised, low-grade and mixed copper scrap into copper with a purity exceeding 99.9%. It will recover valuable materials that are today largely used in lower-value applications or exported outside Europe.
The project will combine advanced sensor-based cold sorting technologies with AI-driven optimisation of the fire-refining process.
The facility is designed to process approximately 30,000 tonnes of complex copper scrap annually, The recycled copper will feed directly into Sofia Med’s existing foundry, replacing a significant share of the primary copper cathodes currently used in its production operations.
Replacing primary copper cathodes with recovered copper is central to the project’s expected climate benefits. Producing primary copper cathodes generates significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions than processing and upgrading secondary copper scrap. Based on project estimates, SVAROG is expected to avoid approximately 1.16 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent over its first ten years of operation.
The investment will expand Bulgaria’s industrial recycling capacity and help retain valuable copper resources within Europe, supporting a more circular supply of raw materials for European manufacturing.
The European Commission has also awarded SVAROG the STEP Seal (Sovereignty Seal) under the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform.
The quality label recognises projects that are strategically important for strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and technological leadership.
