By: Richard Roberts - Editorial Director, Beacon Events

“We operate at the intersection of geology, engineering and geopolitics,” says one of the six tech firms chosen by London-based Founders Factory and mining major Rio Tinto as inductees into their expanding accelerator cohort.

The statement by Munich-based Hades Mining, which recently raised US$6.4 million of pre-seed equity funding to advance what it calls its “next generation subsurface drilling technology”, captures the zeitgeist in a large section of the global mining and metals tech start-up space.

Founded this year, Hades thinks laser-based drilling that unlocks deep geothermal heat reserves and insitu resources can boost sustainable energy and mineral production while also helping countries and regions alleviate traditional supply chain dependencies. “Industries all around the globe are transforming billions of tonnes of raw minerals into the fundament of society. Many of these industries, especially in the Western world, are importing these vital materials and lose all resilience in the process. We are changing that,” say the founders.

Rio Tinto and Founders Factory joined a recent Hades funding round, led by European VC Project A, through their Mining Tech Accelerator program.

They have also added biodiversity tech firms DNAir, Foray Bioscience and Spoor, robotics company Namu Robotics and New York-based FAST Metals.

Founders and Rio Tinto say they have looked at more than 1500 start-ups worldwide over the past couple of years and made 18 investments. As well as funding, the cohort gets four months of expert mentorship – including from mining experts – and crucial access to mine sites. “Many of the 12 investments to date have progressed into further collaboration with Rio Tinto,” Founders says.

Four-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) biomanufacturing spinout Foray also last year raised private capital, with a $3 million seed round taking its total funding to $3.875 million.

Founder and CEO Ashley Beckwith cites estimates indicating the world has lost a half million acres of forest in the last quarter of a century and that one-third of tree species are on the verge of extinction. She says more than 80% of forest restoration projects fail because of limited seed supply, poor germination, and low survival rates.

“Foray’s fabricated seed technology is designed to change that, enabling reliable, large-scale revegetation that lowers costs, mitigates risk and helps landscapes recover faster,” she says.

Zurich, Switzerland-based start-up DNAir, founded last year, uses sensors to capture airborne environmental DNA, or eDNA), it says can play a vital role in more effective biodiversity and invasive species management, environmental impact mitigation and biosecurity.

“While e-DNA is complementary with traditional ecological survey methods it can uncover hidden diversity by detecting more species than through conventional methods, including often undetected species such as invertebrates or micro-organisms such as bacteria,” says CEO and founder, Fabian Roger.

Norway’s Spoor, formed back in 2020, uses AI-powered bird monitoring to enhance biodiversity management. Namu Robotics, also founded in 2024, has started its first commercial reforestation project after prototyping and testing its tree-planting robot last year. The company says it mission is to “accelerate global reforestation through autonomous, AI-powered tree-planting systems that deliver high survival, lower costs and full environmental traceability”. It says smart robotics can help it plant more than one billion trees in the next decade.

In New York, former Glencore hydrometallurgy technical director Sumedh Gostu and co-founder Anthony Staley say their breakthrough chemical recovery process can produce iron, aluminium, scandium, titanium and other metals from industrial waste and waste CO2. The Colorado School of Mines alumni, who did their PhDs 15 years apart, believe sustainable new metal supply and waste mitigation are a proverbial elephant in the room, which would explain Fast Metals’ logo.

Gostu says there is more to it. “Anthony happened to do his PhD [on] red-mud metals processing 15 years before I started my PhD. I built on his work from 2014 to 2018. His wife gifted Anthony an elephant god statue before he started his PhD, so [it projects] the story of the origins of the work connecting the founders.

“We are also focusing on a large problem. Small strides can make a huge impact.”

Staley is currently CEO of global metals producer Nyrstar’s US operations.

Fast Metals, only formed this year, says its process presents a “cost-effective, low-energy, zero-waste process that extracts critical metals and green iron from bauxite tailings and beyond, delivering up to 50% higher margins”.

In terms of small strides, Gostu says the aim is to do pilot-scale testing in 2026.

“This is intended to be done in the US,” he says. “We have an agreement with a partner whose hydrometallurgical facility we are going to use.

“After pilot demonstration we seek to implement our technology at a mine site.”

Rio Tinto chief innovation officer Dan Walker says the company’s Ventures team and the accelerator partnership with Founders Factory aim to “bring in fresh thinking and cutting-edge technologies from inside and outside the mining sector to help us solve real-world challenges faster, more sustainably and ultimately at scale”.

“We’re incredibly excited about this new cohort of startups and the opportunity to work together to shape the future of materials, mining and the energy transition,” Walker says.

Founders Factory president George Northcott says there has “never been a more important time for the provision of critical minerals and materials for electrification and many other of the world’s needs”.

“We are excited to be part of developing the right solutions whilst protecting nature in the process,” he says.

A joint statement by Founders Factory and Rio Tinto said founders of the six latest companies in its accelerator program would be at the International Mining and Resources Conference + Expo (IMARC) in Sydney from October 21-23 to take part in an innovation showcase and discussion led by Founders Factory on funding the future of mining technology.