The pollution control devices contain valuable metals, making them a hot commodity for recycling. Some beneficiaries of the thefts look the other way.
The innards of a catalytic converter are coated in some of the rarest, most expensive metals on the planet. Credit... Janie Osborne for The New York Times Cordierite Ceramics
By Walt Bogdanich, Isak Hüllert and Eli Tan
Walt Bogdanich reported from Columbus, Mont.; Nassau County, N.Y.; and Orlando, Fla. Isak Hüllert and Eli Tan interviewed officials from three continents with ties to the catalytic converter industry.
One morning in September, a truck disgorged its load of pulverized rock with a resounding bang inside Stillwater Mining’s metallurgical plant north of Yellowstone National Park.
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The mined ore contains platinum, palladium and rhodium, three of the earth’s rarest, most expensive metals — and vital components in the millions of catalytic converters that reduce polluting emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles.
At the opposite end of the plant was another batch of metal, not from the mine but from used catalytic converters ground into powder for recycling. The new and the old metals would later be blended under intense heat, then shipped to a refinery.
Recycling catalytic converters costs less than mining the ore. But it carries a risk, as Stillwater discovered after paying more than $170 million for used ones, many of them stolen, according to an indictment handed up this spring on Long Island that implicated the mine. Stillwater was not charged and denied knowing the devices were stolen.
The indictment is an outgrowth of a billion-dollar epidemic of catalytic converter thefts that has not only disabled vehicles but also involved dozens of shootings, truck hijackings and other violence. Replacement devices are often hard to get and can cost $1,000 or more.
and sold to auto suppliers,
The metals come from mines
and sold to auto suppliers,
from vehicles and sold to recyclers
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