Burnt recycling center plans merger with new STL headquarters 

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. - The company destroyed in a large Fredericktown fire, Critical Mineral Recovery (CMR), revealed plans to not just rebuild but also expand. 

"For the first time in decades, St. Louis has a publicly traded company moving its headquarters into St. Louis, not out of St. Louis," attorney Al Watkins, who represents CMR, said. 

An SEC filing shows CMR plans to merge with another company based in Florida and four companies out of South Korea to create Evolution Metals. 

"Four companies based in Korea that constitute the only magnet manufacturers in the free world. China controls or owns all of the magnets, and you have to have magnets to have EVs," Watkins said. 

Watkins tells FOX 2 that plans to expand include bringing the headquarters for Evolution Metals to St. Louis and creating 60 jobs there. It also hopes to acquire up to 100 acres to build a new campus in the Fredericktown area, creating 400 jobs over the next four years. 

But people in Fredericktown have concerns after last month's fire forced evacuations while the EPA monitored air quality. With residents worried about long-term health consequences, Kimi Royer says she is helping form a concerned citizens group to have their voices heard. 

"I have people contacting me saying, 'How can we start petitions? How can we canvass the community and make sure that we are being represented?'” she said. 

 Watkins says CMR is sensitive to their concerns. The new SEC filing mentions a strategy to enhance CMR’s fire suppression technology and the potential to separate high-risk portions of the recycling process into separate buildings. 

But Royer says she has not heard much support for these new plans yet. 

"The point of a concerned citizen group would be to find out if this is what the people want. Transparency needs to start with our own elected officials," she said. 

Watkins says Evolution Metals hopes for NASDAQ approval to be publicly traded by the end of the year.