Aurubis Bulgaria

Aurubis Bulgaria AD operates the largest copper smelter in Southeast Europe and one of the largest in the entire European Union, located in the town of Pirdop in the Sofia Province at the foot of the Sredna Gora mountain range, approximately 70 km east of Sofia. A subsidiary of Hamburg-based Aurubis AG, the world's leading copper recycler and one of the largest copper producers globally, the Pirdop smelter processes approximately 1.1 million tonnes of copper concentrate annually, producing copper cathodes, precious metals, sulphuric acid, and other by-products. With approximately 1,400 employees, Aurubis Bulgaria is one of the largest industrial employers in the Sofia Province region and one of Bulgaria's top exporters by revenue. The in-house legal team handles complex environmental compliance under the Zakon za opazvane na okolnata sreda (Environmental Protection Act) and EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), mining and resource extraction concession agreements, international commodity supply contracts, energy procurement (as one of Bulgaria's largest industrial electricity consumers), employment law under the Kodeks na truda for a large industrial workforce, health and safety regulation, EU REACH compliance for chemical substances, and competition law matters across the European copper market.