Supra Elemental Recovery: what its US gallium and scandium push means for miners
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
University of Texas at Austin spinout Supra Elemental Recovery has raised an oversubscribed $2 million pre-seed round, led by Crucible Capital, to commercialise a proprietary refining platform for high-purity gallium, scandium and other critical minerals from US industrial byproducts, mine tailings and e-waste. The non-toxic process combines solvent extraction and ion exchange, claiming up to 100× greater selectivity and speed than conventional methods, with initial focus on semiconductor supply chains and validation for cobalt and lithium. Commercial pilots are targeted for 2026, directly addressing the US’s 100% import dependence on gallium and scandium.
Technical Brief
- Supra’s refining platform merges solvent extraction and ion exchange in a single non‑toxic flowsheet.
- Process design targets high‑purity separation of gallium and scandium from mixed, low‑grade waste feeds.
- Feedstocks explicitly include industrial byproducts, mine tailings and electronic waste generated within the United States.
- Multi‑element recovery from multiple waste sources is positioned as a hedge against single‑asset or single‑ore dependency.
- Technology is derived from federally funded materials science and engineering research at the University of Texas at Austin.
- For US miners, tailings and process residues become potential critical‑mineral revenue streams without new primary extraction.
Our Take
With the US 100% import-dependent on gallium and scandium, the planned $12 billion “Project Vault” stockpile (2 Feb 2026 item) suggests early domestic producers like Supra Elemental Recovery could secure premium, policy-driven offtake rather than purely market-priced sales.
Other US critical-mineral plays in our database, such as Ionic Mineral Technologies’ Silicon Ridge project in Utah (14 Dec 2025), are targeting primary extraction, whereas Supra’s process focus positions it to bolt onto existing lithium, cobalt, gold or silver operations as a by-product recovery upgrade.
The $2 million pre-seed round is modest compared with multi-billion-dollar federal allocations in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (8 Dec 2025), which likely means Supra will need to demonstrate its claimed 100× selectivity/speed gains quickly to tap into larger DOE or EXIM-backed funding streams by its 2026 pilot horizon.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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