LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Shelby County is celebrating a $100 million investment.

Wednesday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at a 79-acre property that will become home to a new copper and copper-alloy recycling hub in Shelbyville. The property is off McConnell Way (formerly an extension of Isaac Shelby Drive) in Shelby County.

"Just moments ago, leaders broke ground on what will be -- this is pretty exciting -- the most technologically advanced copper recycling and refining facility anywhere in the world, and it's going to be right here in Shelby County," Gov. Andy Beshear said. "How exciting is that?"

Wieland North America is the company behind the future recycling hub. Less than two years ago, the German metals company moved its North American headquarters to Louisville and now comes this investment in Shelbyville.

"Wieland announced this $100 million investment last May," said Beshear. "That was just four months after the company announced plans to locate its North American Headquarters in Louisville, with an $8.8 million investment."

"Thank you for your investment," Beshear told Wieland officials. "Thank you for picking us. Thank you for picking this community and like I said, we will not let you down."

Matt Bedingfield, President of Wieland North America Recycling and Senior Vice President of Global Metal Supply said he's glad to work with Kentucky on this project, saying the Commonwealth was chosen because of a trust that was built.

"We had multiple sites that we were considering and due to partnership with Governor Beshear and his team, the local team, Kentucky just really pulled it together to ultimately make us make the right decision to be here," said Bedingfield.

The plant will melt and recycle copper and copper-alloy scrap. Products from the company are used in several industries like construction, automotive, electronics, and others.

The Shelby County facility is expected to create 75 new jobs.

"These will be high quality jobs where people aren't bent over sorting scrap," said Bedingfield. "They're programming the equipment, optimizing the equipment, figuring out how we can get the most out of the assets that we have so we can then create more jobs."

If all goes as planned, the Shelby County facility will be up and running by late 2023.

For more information on Wieland North America, click here.

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