Alta Resource Technologies, a Colorado-based start-up focused on efficient extraction of critical minerals, has raised $5.1 million in an oversubscribed seed round co-led by DCVC and Voyager Ventures, with participation from Orion Industrial Ventures, Overture and WovenEarth Ventures.
Alta has developed a biochemistry platform that leverages technology licensed from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is co-developed with collaborators including researchers at Pennsylvania State University.
With its first products, Alta aims to increase supplies of rare earth elements like neodymium and dysprosium — essential for electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, and defense technologies — by cost-effectively separating them from abundant low-grade sources and end-of-life products that cannot be processed using conventional methods.
Alta said its technology uses custom-designed proteins that act like microscopic robots to separate high-purity rare earth elements and other critical minerals with unprecedented selectivity and cost-effectiveness.
The company has also secured nearly $1 million in grant funding from the federal government, including the Department of Defense’s DARPA, and the State of Colorado. Earlier funding was provided by Baruch Future Ventures and Climate Capital (now Juniper).
Rare earth metals demand is projected to increase at 10.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2024-2033. There is currently only one producing rare earths mine in the US: MP Materials’ Mountain Pass in California.
The Department of Defense has implemented a strategy to develop domestic supply chains to ensure continued access to the rare earth materials needed to manufacture the permanent magnets used in US military weapons systems, as domestic shortages of rare earth elements and could derail the energy transition, stunt economic growth, and potentially undermine national security.
“Biology has solved the problem of ultra-selective mineral separation over billions of years, but translating that into practical applications has been elusive – until now,” Alta CEO Nathan Ratledge, PhD, said in Tuesday’s news release.
“Our technology leverages specially engineered proteins that can bind to specific metals with unprecedented selectivity, even at low concentrations in complex mixtures.
By deploying these proteins in a continuous, scalable process, we can unlock vast untapped mineral resources here at home, strengthening our supply chains and national security while setting a new standard for environmentally responsible mining.”
