Sabin Metal Corporation

What Sabin Metal Corporation does

Sabin Metal Corporation is a privately held, family-controlled precious metals refiner founded in 1940 and headquartered in East Hampton, New York. The company recovers and refines platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium), gold, silver, and rhenium from spent industrial catalysts, manufacturing byproducts, and scrap generated by the petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, fuel cell, and mining sectors. Its core technical differentiator is a pyro-metallurgical (high-temperature furnace-based) recovery process — distinct from the hydro-metallurgical (acid/caustic dissolution) methods common among competitors — which the company claims delivers net returns exceeding 90% of contained precious metal value versus under 60% from direct broker sales. Its proprietary Pyro-Re® process is described as the only full pyro-metallurgical recovery of rhenium in the industry, capturing the metal through volatilization as rhenium heptoxide before condensation into ammonium perrhenate or reduced metal form.

The company operates three principal production facilities — a 500,000+ sq ft main plant in Scottsville, New York with a state-of-the-art assay laboratory and Good Delivery-certified fine metal refinery (accredited by the London Platinum and Palladium Market); Sabin Metal West in Williston, North Dakota, with two electric arc furnaces running continuously and processing more than 12 million pounds of customer material annually; and SMC Canada Ltd. in Cobalt, Ontario, with gravity and flotation concentration circuits for mine products and secondary materials. It also maintains wholly-owned international sales offices in Rotterdam, Dubai (DMCC branch), Mexico City, and Shanghai, plus a dedicated logistics subsidiary (Sabin International Logistics Corporation) to coordinate cross-border movement of high-value cargo. Beyond refining, the company offers integrated metal management services — including metal financing, leasing, guarantor capabilities, market and risk analysis, and designated metal pool accounts — positioning itself as a one-stop shop from sampling through settlement.

Revenue is generated primarily through transaction fees on precious metal content recovered and returned to customers, supplemented by professional services revenue from metal management and financing activities. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, reflecting the variability of precious metal values and the bespoke nature of each customer material lot. In October 2024, Sabin announced a partnership with climate-tech startup Travertine to build a demonstration plant in Upstate New York for carbon-negative sulfuric acid (and potentially green hydrogen) production, signaling an emerging move into sustainable chemical inputs that could decarbonize its own refining operations and open a new product line. The company is bootstrapped with no external private equity or venture capital backing disclosed in source materials.

Name

Sabin Metal Corporation

Legal name

Sabin Metal Corporation

Website

https://sabinmetal.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1940

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Sabin Metal Corporation is a privately held precious metals refiner that recovers platinum group metals, gold, silver, and rhenium from spent industrial catalysts and byproducts for petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, fuel cell, and mining customers worldwide using proprietary pyro-metallurgical processes.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Precious Metals Refining & Recycling

NAICS

Secondary Smelting, Refining, and Alloying of Nonferrous Metal (except Copper and Aluminum) (331492)

SIC

Secondary Smelting & Refining Of Nonferrous Metals (3341)

akta.pro primary industry

Precious Metals Smelting & Refining (IMAKAEAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Catalyst & Precious Metal Scrap Recycling (Auto Catalysts, Refinery/Petrochemical Catalysts) (IMAKAMAI), Metal Melting & Secondary Smelting/Refining (Recycled Feedstock Producers) (EUAIAJAJ)

Keywords

• Precious metal refining
• Platinum group metals recovery
• Spent catalyst recycling
• Pyro-metallurgical refining
• Rhenium recovery services

Headquarters

HQ city

East Hampton

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Precious Metal Refining Services: Sabin processes customer materials containing precious metals (platinum group metals, gold, silver, rhenium), refines them using pyro-metallurgical processes, and returns the recovered metals to customers. Customers are paid based on the total precious metal content determined through sampling and assay processes. The company also offers metal financing, leasing, and guarantor capabilities.
2. Metal Management Services: In-house metal management including metal financing (advances on precious metals), metal market and risk analysis, and post-settlement metal options including designated metal pool accounts.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Sabin Metal Corporation recovers and refines precious metals—platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium), gold, silver, and rhenium—from spent industrial catalysts, manufacturing byproducts, and scrap generated by the petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, and fuel cell industries. The company operates a full pyro-metallurgical refining workflow under one roof, from sampling and fire assay through high-temperature furnace recovery, plus complementary metal management, shipping/logistics, and zero-discharge recycling services.

Product overview

Sabin Metal Corporation is a precious metal recovery, recycling, and refining service provider offering a comprehensive suite of integrated services under one roof. The core offerings include: Precious Metal Refining (using proprietary Pyro-Re® pyro-metallurgical technology), Sampling, Lab Analysis (fire assay and ICP methods), Metal Management (financial services including metal financing and market analysis), Shipping & Logistics, International Services, and Recycling & Disposal. The company processes materials from pharmaceutical, petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, electronics, fuel cell, and other industries, recovering platinum group metals, gold, silver, and offering the only full pyro-metallurgical rhenium recovery in the industry. The company operates facilities in New York, North Dakota, Canada, and international sales offices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Pyro-Re®: Proprietary pyro-metallurgical precious metals refinery process offering the only pyro-metallurgical recovery of rhenium in the industry.

Products and services

• Precious Metal Refining Pyro-metallurgical refining service that recovers platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium), gold, silver, and rhenium from spent industrial catalysts and byproducts. Targets customers in the petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, and fuel cell industries.
• Sampling Rigorous sampling service using pretreating and dry, melt, or solution sampling techniques to generate homogeneous analytical samples that accurately represent customer materials, including multi-ton lots of spent catalysts.
• Lab Analysis Fire assay and analytical services using Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP), Atomic Absorption, and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy to determine precious metal content in samples and validate results across multiple methods.
• Metal Management Full financial and metal management services including metal financing (advances, leasing, guarantor capabilities), metal market and risk analysis, and post-settlement metal options such as designated metal pool accounts.
• Shipping & Logistics Coordination of transport of precious metal materials from customer facilities to Sabin's processing locations worldwide.
• International Services Navigation of international regulations, import/export formalities, and agency requirements for global precious metal material transport.
• Recycling & Disposal Zero-discharge recycling and safe disposal services for byproduct materials at Sabin's facilities.
• Pyro-Re® Rhenium Recovery Process Proprietary pyro-metallurgical process offering the only full pyro-metallurgical recovery of rhenium in the industry, processing spent Pt-Re/Al2O3 catalysts through a high-temperature furnace sequence that volatilizes rhenium as rhenium heptoxide (Re2O7) and captures it via proprietary condensation and scrubbing systems as ammonium perrhenate (APR) or reduced metal.

Quantifiable outcome

• Net return typically over 90% of precious metals value contained vs. less than 60% from direct broker sales
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• TravertinecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 October 2024Sabin Metal Corporation has partnered with award-winning climate tech startup Travertine to build a demonstration plant in Upstate New York. The Travertine Process combines salt-splitting electrolysis, caustic direct air capture, and mineralization to convert gypsum and carbon dioxide into sulfuric acid, green hydrogen, and calcium carbonate. The carbon-negative process will supply sustainable, fossil-free sulfuric acid for Sabin's recycling and refining business. Future expansion could supply green hydrogen to replace natural gas for high-temperature industrial heat at the site.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Materion Corporation: Materion's Performance Materials segment includes precious metals refining and PGM catalyst recycling, with overlapping industrial customer segments and refining capabilities.
• Umicore: Umicore's Precious Metals Refining business recovers PGMs, gold, silver, and rhenium from industrial byproducts and spent catalysts, with comparable pyro- and hydro-metallurgical capability to Sabin.
• Metalor Technologies (MKS PAMP): Metalor/MKS PAMP operates a global precious metals refining and recycling network including PGM recovery, directly competing for industrial refining customers similar to Sabin's.
• Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo: Tanaka is a major Japanese precious metals refiner with industrial catalyst and PGM recycling operations, comparable in process depth and customer segments to Sabin.
• Dowa Holdings: Dowa's Eco-System segment includes precious metals and non-ferrous metal recycling from industrial scrap and catalysts, making it a directly comparable secondary refiner.
• Heraeus Precious Metals: Heraeus operates a global precious metals refining and recycling business including PGM recovery from spent catalysts, directly competing with Sabin in industrial precious metals refining. The two firms are the most directly comparable full-service PGM refiners.
• Johnson Matthey: Johnson Matthey's Precious Metals division refines and recycles PGMs from spent catalysts, automotive catalysts, and industrial feedstocks, overlapping directly with Sabin's petroleum, petrochemical, and chemical catalyst streams.
• Asahi Refining: Asahi Refining is a North American precious metals refiner producing Good Delivery gold, silver, and PGM products, with a comparable industrial customer focus to Sabin.

Broad incumbents

• BASF (Catalysts division): BASF operates a large catalysts and precious metals business including closed-loop PGM recovery for industrial customers, overlapping with Sabin's petroleum and chemical catalyst refining but as part of a much broader chemicals portfolio.

Emerging players

• Sims Lifecycle Services: Sims Lifecycle Services (SLS) handles IT asset disposition and electronics-scrap precious metals recovery. While focused on ITAD rather than industrial catalyst refining, it competes for some of Sabin's electronics and fuel cell PGM feedstock streams.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/sabin-metal-corporation-186588671375163
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sabin-metal-corp.

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sabin Metal Corporation