Copper Smelter Norddeutsche Affinerie To Change Name to Aurubis

The official renaming will not take place until after the official resolution is passed at the group's annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled for 26 February 2009, NA said in a statement released by its copper smelting unit in Bulgaria, Pirdop-based Cumerio Med.

The name means "red gold" and "puts in a nutshell what copper symbolises for us and our customers – a metal of extraordinary value," NA chief executive officer Bernd Drouven said in the statement.

Aurubis produces some one million tonnes of copper cathodes and more than 1.2 million tonnes of copper products per annum. It has about 4,800 employees at twelve production sites in seven European countries - Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain and Slovakia.