Metallium Ltd. has delivered breakthrough testing results using its proprietary Flash Joule Heating (FJH) platform, successfully upgrading rare earth elements, germanium, platinum group metals, and industrial red mud.
While electronic waste processing remains the company’s immediate commercial focus, the multi-commodity campaigns demonstrate the platform’s capacity to simplify flowsheets and expand potential deployment through technology licensing and strategic partnerships.
The company converted rare earth Elements (REEs) containing 12 per cent total rare earth oxides directly into a >83 per cent mixed REE chloride intermediate, achieving a fourfold enrichment of magnet metals neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr).
The tests also achieved up to 280-times germanium enrichment from zinc smelter waste, 240-times from semiconductor manufacturing scrap, and 35-times from defence-related industrial waste.
Metallium also recovered a >60 per cent purity platinum group metals (PGM) product containing platinum, palladium, and rhodium from spent catalytic converters in a single cycle, cutting processing time by roughly 75 per cent compared to traditional recycling pathways.
Testing also processed bauxite residue to remove 99 per cent of iron and 94 per cent of silicon while retaining 95 per cent of aluminium, concentrating gallium into a separate stream.
The testwork was initiated following direct approaches from industry participants in defence, manufacturing, and critical minerals sectors, with commercial discussions now underway.
Metallium CEO Michael Walshe said the outcomes prove the technology can solve diverse processing bottlenecks across strategic supply chains.
“The results across rare earths, germanium, platinum group metals and red mud demonstrate the versatility of the platform and, importantly, its potential to solve very different processing challenges,” Walshe said.
“Our objective is not simply to demonstrate technical performance, but to convert successful testing into commercial agreements.”
The technological milestones position Metallium to capture capital-light licensing opportunities, particularly as the US accelerates funding into domestic critical metal refining and recycling infrastructure.
