Mint Innovation Recognised as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum

NZ based Mint Innovation was recently recognised by the World Economic Forum as one of 100 companies to create innovative technology focused on solving some of the world’s most pressing issues.

AWRE Exhibitor, Mint Innovation has been busy in three years since the last AWRE show and is a must-visit for professionals wanting to catch up on the most innovative recycling technologies. The Australian recycling industry is set to become a major partner for one of The World Economics Forum’s “Pioneering Technologies of 2022”.

Mint uses proprietary technology in its local biorefineries which recover valuable metals from waste – eliminating the need to export waste and providing an alternative to conventional metals mining.

The company is close to completing its inaugural commercial plant in Smithfield Sydney featuring a large-scale biorefining facility. Mint has already contacted many of Australia’s major e-waste recyclers and expects a huge take up of its service to recover valuable metals from a range of waste including computers, phones and whitegoods.

CEO, Dr Will Barker, said the Mint team is keen to attend the Australian Waste and Recycling Expo (AWRE), to meet e-waste operators and showcase the technology first-hand. “At present most e-waste is sent off-shore for processing which can be very expensive for Australian recycling collectors with the increasing cost of transport, insurance and compliance,” said Dr Barker.

“In addition, collectors need to amass a huge amount of waste in order to meet minimum shipping requirements and this can be difficult for smaller collectors.

“With our new Smithfield facility, collectors can send us a one tonne bag of waste and only have the cost of local couriers,” he said.

The technology extracts a number of valuable metals including gold, copper and palladium using a four stage process.

1. Upon receipt, waste material is weighed and milled to a sand consistency to enable rapid metal recovery.
2. Precious metals including gold and palladium are dissolved using Mint’s proprietary chemistry while other metals such as copper are recovered using a conventional electrochemical process.
3. Precious metals selectively recovered from solutions using Mint’s patented biosorption process and barren leach liquors recycled for further processing.
4. Extracted precious metals are refined to pure metal for immediate sale.

Mint’s technology is a genuine alternative to conventional mining with metals being able to be recovered in perpetuity.

“For gold recovery, our technology produces less than ten per cent of the carbon it takes to extract gold when compared to traditional mining,” said Dr Barker.

“With the ever decreasing yield faced by mining companies, more carbon is needed to produce less output so it’s our quest to take this new method to the world,” he said.

You can visit Mint Innovation at AWRE from 24-25 August on Stand C14 to find out more about their e-waste solutions. Register free to attend today!