Startups & Funding
Fast Metals raises $4.3M to mine critical minerals from red mud
Fast Metals raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round to extract critical minerals like titanium and rare-earth elements from red mud, the caustic waste product of aluminum refining that has piled up in ponds and mounds worldwide.
More than 3 billion tons of red mud — the waste left over from refining aluminum — sit stored in open-air ponds and mounds, and Fast Metals co-founder and CEO Sumedh Gostu believes there’s treasure in it. “It is a very rich resource,” he told TechCrunch. “If you attack with the right chemistry, it can be very profitable.”
Fast Metals has raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round led by New Climate Ventures, with participation from Azolla Ventures, Astor Swiss, and Rio Tinto’s accelerator, Founders Factory. Red mud gets its reddish color mainly from rusted iron, the most common compound in the mix, but it also contains critical minerals including titanium, aluminum, and rare-earth elements. Those minerals have largely gone untapped because separating them from the iron oxide has been too expensive, according to Gostu. “We are removing that impediment,” he said.
Gostu designed most of the extraction process during his doctoral studies at the Colorado School of Mines, but one piece was missing until a conversation with co-founder Anthony Staley revealed that another waste stream from alumina refineries could make the process economical. Fast Metals applies that waste stream, along with other chemicals, to red mud across six separate processing steps, with different minerals separating out along the way — each of which can be sold. Iron, Gostu said, covers the operating costs, while everything else is profit.
The economics look favorable: titanium dioxide sells for around $2.50 to $3 per kilogram, while scandium oxide sells for about $750 per kilogram. With the new funding, Fast Metals plans to scale up its process. The startup has a commercial contract with mineral processor Metalox to treat one ton of red mud and refinery waste per week later this year.
Why it matters
Red mud has piled up for decades as an environmental liability with no economical way to process it; if Fast Metals’ chemistry holds up at scale, it turns a costly waste stream into a new source of critical minerals rather than a disposal problem.