Mineral extraction startup BlueShift has launched with a pre-seed round of $2.1 million to build it first pilot project, BlueShift founder and CEO Deep Patel tells Axios.
Why it matters: Critical minerals are in high demand, but mining them is energy-intensive and environmentally destructive.
How it works: BlueShift has developed an electrochemical cell that uses redox chemistry to extract minerals from industrial waste with low energy. Patel says he was showing off the unit around CERAWeek last week.
The company’s first target market is to colocate its tech next to coal plants that use seawater for direct cooling. The tech can extract minerals from the coal ash and CO2 from the sea.
BlueShift says its tech is 10 times more energy efficient than competing mineral extraction technologies.
Zoom in: Boston-based BlueShift said oil giant ConocoPhillips Company, VC firm Ridgeline and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center participated in the early stage round.
BlueShift’s Patel, who previously worked at Amazon’s moonshot Lab126 on direct air capture, said the bulk of the funding will go towards developing a shipping container-sized unit in Boston harbor that can produce metals from industrial waste, like nickel and rare earths.
The tech can also remove CO2 from seawater and make calcium carbonate as a byproduct.
Regarding the partnership with Conoco, Patel says: “We believe that the oil and gas sector has underutilized infrastructure and talent that we plan to utilize.”
Catch up quick: The company, founded in 2024, works out of Greentown Labs and The Engine and has gotten support from the DOE’s ARPA-E program.
Patel’s co-founder David Kwabi received his Ph.D. at MIT and is an associate professor at Yale.
The big picture: China processes the majority of the world’s rare earth metals and critical minerals like nickel.
Companies that could help onshore the development of critical minerals could prove popular with investors, policymakers and buyers like battery manufacturers.
What’s next: Patel says BlueShift plans to be able to produce one ton per year of nickel and rare earths from its pilot project by the second quarter of 2026.
