An Australian manufacturer has announced plans to mass market a new piece of processing equipment that can extract precious metals from waste materials.

The technology firm Electrometals has strengthened its partnership with industrial heavyweight De Nora, and will now licence its processing technology worldwide.

Electrometals has devised a system - said to be around the size of a washing machine - that weeds out metals such as gold, silver and rhodium from spent processing solutions such as plating baths or wash solutions.

Previously the 'BRAVor' system had been reserved for high-end industrial users, but now the group is targeting a wider market.

Electrometals executive chairman Dick Keevers told the Courier Mail that De Nora was hoping to open up a "substantial" market of up to 150,000 potential customers, with Europe and Asia the chief targets.

Mr Keevers also revealed that the firm was keen to expand into Central America and Australia through key industrial clients.