There are three notable things about the “biorefinery” opened in Sydney by New Zealand company Mint Innovation today.

1. Treasure hunt in the trash

1. The unique “bioremediation” process will be used to extract rare and precious
Metal from old cell phones, laptops and other e-waste.

Co-founder and chief executive Will Barker said the Sydney plant was configured to process around 3000 tonnes of e-waste a year, producing around half a tonne of gold and 600 tonnes of copper from the material.

Buck said his company will sell the mined metal directly to electronics manufacturers (think companies like Apple and Samsung to create a “circular ecosystem”).

While gold is in the headlines, his company will also be mining a slew of other metals, from copper to palladium—metals and their usual traditional mining resources that have been disrupted by the war in Ukraine, and demand for catalytic converters has suddenly become very strong.

“We’re working on the challenge of extracting materials from circuit boards, which contain more than 40 metals, many of which are dangerous, the most valuable of which is gold – but it’s actually one of the lowest concentrations of metals [on a circuit board] So it was very, very difficult to restore it,” Buck explained.

“So we developed our own biotechnology that allows us to selectively recover gold from circuit boards. Once you recover gold, you can target other metals using traditional, fairly well-known chemistry.”

Mint is not in the business of collecting e-waste. Instead, it works with local partners. Buck said that would give them an alternative to the usual route: shipping e-waste overseas.

The Kiwi company has partnered with Australia’s Scipher Technologies, billed as “Australia’s leading urban mining recycler”, to build its first plant in Sydney. In other regions, Mint may also choose local partners — but it also has enough money to go it alone, Barker said.

2: Recycle the money

Second, Mint is a prime example of an entrepreneur from a successful New Zealand company – in this case, biofuel company LanzaTech, now based in the US – giving back to the local ecosystem with money and skills. Barker is a former vice president of LanzaTech.

Backers of the young company include those who have benefited from previous exits, including Sir Stephen Tyndall, Sam Morgan, Auckland’s Icehouse Ventures (the largest single investor with a 28% stake) and Wellington’s Movac (27%). Australia Venture capital firm Blackbird (4%) is also among them.

Since 2016, backers have invested a total of $26 million in Series A and B rounds. Mint is now gearing up for a Series C funding round behind a commercial proof-of-concept Sydney plant, which Barker says will be between $40 million and $60 million.

3. Running away from home without seeing the country

Third – and it’s not so “good” for New Zealand at least – Buck said Mint chose Sydney for its first commercial factory, in part because it received a $4 million federal grant. “That’s a sizable chunk of the money needed to build the plant,” the CEO said.

Movac partner David Beard said that while Mint has received some level of government support in its home country (the startup has been a recipient of the Callaghan Innovation Fund), direct support from the Australian government for the new factory has helped drive progress.

More broadly, Beard said that while New Zealand was talking about the green e-waste game, Australia was actually taking a tougher stance on e-waste.

“With all these things, you have to put the factories where there is the least friction and the highest returns. You need financial and regulatory support,” Beard said.

“Dumping e-waste into landfill is illegal in Australia, and there is a very strong recycling community.” (Here, the government and many councils encourage e-recycling, but have always estimated 98% of our e-waste ends up in landfills—aside from wasting precious materials, it’s also problematic for the environment).

“We would love to have a New Zealand factory, but that might be a wake-up call for New Zealand,” Beard said.

Plans for the second factory, which will be based in the UK, are now well underway, Buck said.

Beard said Mint could target individual countries within the bloc, given that the EU’s well-established program to support e-waste recycling is tied to strict environmental guidelines.

The Movac partner said his company was attracted to Mint mainly because Barker proved his prowess at LanzaTech, but he said the company has been an exemplary startup ever since — in the lab with A $6M Series A round to prove its technology, build a pilot plant for its Series B round, and now open its first commercial plant as a springboard for its Series C round.

Beard said Movac is doing due diligence and may support the Series C round. But he also believes that some large international venture capital firms may join the current round, or the Series D round already in the pipeline.

He shared with the Herald the Sydney plant’s financial costs, forecasts and profits – which are trade secrets but, if successful, will be high profile. Annual revenue is expected to be as high as $40 million.

Beard has seen mint extraction plants in hundreds of cities. “It’s naive to think that there are no competitors,” for startups in the biotherapeutics process, “but they’re years behind. They’re still in development,” he said.

Tough times to raise funds?

Investors seem to be very happy so far and are gearing up to back the Series C round.

“The commissioning of Mint’s first full-scale factory since Pete is one of the most significant commercial milestones for New Zealand’s tech community [Peter Beck] Launched his first rocket. This is the culmination of seven years of hard work and world-leading technology development by Will and the team,” said Icehouse CEO Robbie Paul.

He added: “Investing in Will from the start was an easy choice for us. He is applying his six years of experience at Lanzatech and using similar technology to address a large waste stream.”

But there is no doubt that the tide of venture capital has turned recently, with rising interest rates, falling stock markets and recession fears dampening activity.

“This is definitely not a good time to raise capital, but each particular industry recognises the climate emergency – so the industry is a strong ESG [environmental and social governance] story; a low carbon story. So there tends to be a little bit of isolation — but there’s still a better time for us to raise money. “

Beard said that many VCs are now more strict on the books of a startup, and if they do decide to invest, its valuation could be lower.

But he said good companies can still raise money at the kind of multiples we’ve seen during the recent boom.

“We’re very eager to back the Series C,” he said, “but we’re also eager for new investors to come on board.”