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MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) has reported its chlorine-based tech used to recover gold from e-waste, Flash Joule Heating (FJH), recovered 100% of trace gold as water-soluble metal chloride at an effective grade of 551g/t.
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This means – though, measuring water-soluble metal chlorides under grams-per-tonne could perhaps give one pause – the e-waste ‘char’ feedstock MTM used (meaning motherboards et al once the plastic was removed) effectively contains 100x more gold than gold-containing-ores.
That’s so long as you accept the ‘average’ ore grade has an upper ceiling of 5g/t. But still, it’s an interesting enough claim. So too is MTM’s claim it has now solicited interest from the US Department of Defence (DoD), which checks out.
(Maybe the DoD could avoid having to deal with burn pits compensation if it instead sends scrap e-waste from walkie-talkies, desktop computers, laptops, phones, vehicles and weapons systems.)
At any rate, the breakthrough, if you want to call it that, is an important one.
That international growth of the human population necessarily means global growth in landfill waste implies a fairly easy-to-grasp value proposition: We probably should have scaled up ‘circular economy’ recycling initiatives of this ilk around forty years ago.
The problem, of course, is it takes more time and money (R&D) to make this economic than it does to produce single-use and short-term items that can be easily replaced.
And that’s where what is probably MTM’s biggest risk kicks in: Making its FJH technology work at scale.
Implying that their process can recover grades of gold 100x higher than that found in ores, measured by the tonne, implies MTM would need a fairly constant supply of e-waste in the tonnes. So far, they’re not ready to handle those volumes.
Despite reporting its tech also works when you throw an entire heap of circuit boards into the fryer, plastic and all, Tuesday’s results are based around e-char, which is e-waste with plastics removed – turned into “syngas.”
So the process of removing plastics from e-waste, entirely different to its FJH tech, would also need to be scaled up (and ideally brought in on-site.)
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As for the specifics of where MTM Critical Metals got the feedstock on which Tuesday’s results were based, well, it was left a little vague. A new partner with whom a watered-down non-binding MOU was signed, U.S.-based Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations, did not supply this latest lot.
MTM last traded at 16cps this afternoon.
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