The metals are already above ground.
We recover critical minerals from mine tailings, e-waste and wastewater using selective, bio-based nanomaterials.
01 / The challenge
Demand for critical minerals is rising fast. New mines take 15 to 20 years to open in the West, and refining is concentrated in a few countries. Meanwhile, enormous value sits in waste streams that no technology can recover profitably.
6×
growth in rare-earth demand by 2040
~90%
of rare-earth refining controlled by a single country
15–20 yrs
to bring a new Western mine online
02 / ANC
Activated Nano Cellulose
Nano-scale sorbents made from cellulose that bind individual metal ions at the atomic level.
- Selective
- Each sorbent captures only the element it is tuned for.
- Bio-based
- Made from renewable cellulose and run in water, without toxic solvents.
- Regenerable
- Stripped and reused across cycles in a closed loop.
01
Waste stream
tailings · e-waste · water
02
ANC binds
target ions, selectively
03
Regeneration
concentrated metal out
04
Reuse
sorbent returns to loop
03 / Performance
An order of magnitude ahead on every metric.
50×
higher adsorption capacity
265–775 mg/g vs 3–15 for activated carbon
1,000×
faster kinetics
Full adsorption in seconds, not minutes or days
10×
more dilute streams
Viable at ppm concentrations
100×
lower cost per kilogram
vs conventional ion-exchange resins
04 / The hardest separation
16.5×
Selectivity for dysprosium over neodymium in a single step. Today, that separation takes dozens of solvent-extraction stages.
291 mg/g
dysprosium capacity, 96% of theoretical
6.8×
stronger binding affinity for dysprosium than neodymium
76% of scandium extracted from mine-tailings leachate in a single, non-optimised lab pass.
Other approaches rebuild the plant. ANC works in flotation circuits mines already use.
Transforming waste into critical minerals supply chains.
05 / Applications
06 / Impact
Building the missing infrastructure layer for European and North American mineral supply.