TANAKA Precious Metals announced the appointment of Bodo Albrecht as President of TANAKA Kikinzoku (America). Albrecht will be responsible for all operations in North, Central, and South America. This includes sales, distribution, and support for all TANAKA products in close cooperation with all manufacturing, marketing, technical/R&D, and related operations in Asia.
Mr. Albrecht is a precious metals executive with deep roots in the industry, as well as in rare earth elements and strategic metals. Before joining TANAKA, his career included 20 years of international management positions with Degussa AG, followed by 15 years running a consulting firm, BASIQ Corporation, where he developed copyrighted precious metals management methods and provided metal security, process consulting, project management, and marketing strategies.
Concurrent with his consultancy business, he wrote a bi-weekly column on Kitco News titled “Tech Metals Insider.” The series focused on the future direction of the precious metals industry and the role of battery metals, rare earth elements, and strategic metals in creating more sustainability in various applications. He also became the North American liaison of Tradium GmbH of Germany, one of the world’s leading wholesalers of technology metals, with regular speaking engagements on “Metal Megatrends” at conferences and symposiums. In 2019, he joined BASF Corporation’s precious metals division, formerly known as Engelhard. Albrecht is currently a member of the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI), where he has served in various functions, including Chair of the Board, President, and acting Executive Director, with regular speaking engagements at IPMI conferences.
TANAKA Precious Metals is one of the world’s leading refiners, recyclers, and manufacturers of precious metal products, supplying the semiconductor, consumer electronics, automotive, energy, medical, environmental, investment, and jewelry industries. It is focused on products containing the earth’s eight precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium.
The company is currently the world’s largest producer of bonding and bumping wires.