NEWS
4th June 2021
Mint secures Sydney location for first commercial plant
Mint’s team is excited to announce it has leased an industrial premises in Smithfield, in Sydney’s west, which will become home to our inaugural large-scale biorefining facility. While in Sydney this week, CEO Will Barker visited the new site and briefed members of the Cumberland City Council team, including Mayor Steve Christou, on our plans. The regulatory approvals process for the facility is now underway.
19th May 2021
Mint's technology features in Business Insider's World Wide Waste series
For Episode 8 of its World Wide Waste series, Business Insider visited Mint Innovation's Auckland demonstration facility to find out how Mint's innovative technology is tackling the world's e-waste problem.
18th May 2021
Mint Innovation part of the Cleantech Group APAC 25 for 2021
Mint has been named a 2021 APAC25 company by Cleantech Group. It's a recognition of our efforts in sustainable innovation and our potential to deliver transformation in the APAC region and beyond.
18th February 2021
Mint engineer Joren Angeles is interviewed by EG magazine
Joren shares her experiences as an engineer at a cleantech start-up, all the way from new intern to influencial process engineer
11th February 2021
The Circulars Accelerator welcomes Mint into the 2021 cohort
Mint Innovation was announced as one of 17 exciting circular economy businesses to be invited to join The Circulars Accelerator. The accelerator, a World Economic Forum programme, gives young companies the skills and relationships they need to scale quickly, through partnership with Angelo American, SAP and Schneider Electric, among others.
16th December 2020
"The venture using microbes to turn e-waste into precious metals - Auckland University
Mint's R&D lead, and recent Auckland Business School graduate, Rob Staniland talks to the University about Mint's technology and how he's deployed his new skillset within a deeptech business.
10th December 2020
Movac Investment Notes on Mint Innovation
Movac partner, and Mint Innovation board member, David Beard shares his thoughts on Movac leading the Series B funding round and what excites him about Mint's technology.
9th December 2020
Press release - Mint Innovation raises $20m to build gold biorefineries
Mint Innovation's full Series B announcement can be read here.
8th December 2020
CEO Will Barker talks to the NBR about Mint's Series B capital raise
Will sits down with Fiona Rotherham, Co-editor of the New Zealand Business Review, to discuss Mint's journey to date. (The interview video and write-up are paywalled)
18th November 2020
Mint features in Callaghan Innovation report on NZ CleanTech sector
Callaghan Innovation has set an ambitious target to boost New Zealand into the top 10 countries on the Cleantech Group Innovation Index (CGII) by 2022. Mint Innovation features as one of the many exciting CleanTech businesses across NZ.
18th November 2020
'Biomining: Turning Waste into Gold with Microbes' - Labiotech
Mint features as part of a review of the world of biomining, which includes outer space!
23rd October 2020
Dr Rob Staniland talks to The Spinoff for Recycling Week
R&D lead Rob Staniland discusses Mint's e-waste recycling process in the context of tackling New Zealand's plastics crisis.
2nd October 2020
"In New Zealand, microbes are extracting gold from electronic waste" - CNBC
CSO Ollie Crush talks to CNBC about the potential of Mint's technology to recover gold from e-waste in a sustainable way.
18th September 2020
Mint features in CNBC's series on green chemistry
Mint Innovation's process was the focus of part three of CNBC's series on 'The power of green chemistry'. Check out the episode here.
17th September 2020
"Good as gold" - Callaghan Innovation
Mint shares an update of its story with key supporters Callaghan Innovation.
1st September 2020
"Kiwis turning E-waste to gold" - Radio New Zealand
Co-founder Ollie Crush had a lengthy chat with RNZ's Kathryn Ryan about Mint's technology, as well as what New Zealand can do to improve its e-waste recycling outcomes.
22nd August 2020
"Britain to get first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from e-waste" - The Guardian
The Guardian reports on Mint's intention to set up a commercial facility in the United Kingdom during 2021. There is also expert opinion on the need for radical action to address the UK's 'unsustainable approach to e-waste'.
21st August 2020
Mint Innovation wins Most Innovative Deep Tech Solution at NZ Hi-tech Awards
The Mint team were very proud to pick up an award from the prestigious NZ Hi-Tech Awards. Despite the virtual proceedings, it was a fun night with many worthy winners - congratulations to all involved!
29th July 2020
New Zealand government to regulate environmentally harmful e-waste
New Zealand's Associate Environment Minister, Eugenie Sage, today announced six products, including e-waste and car tyres, to be declared ‘priority products’ for the establishment of regulated product stewardship schemes under the Waste Minimisation Act.
20th July 2020
Covid-19 has major impact on gold supply chain
These fantastic infographics from Nicholas LePan show the impact on both the supply and distribution of gold caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The fragility of these systems shows the need for new ways of supplying gold to the global economy.
2nd July 2020
"$10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste" -The Guardian
15th June 2020
Mint's technology is 'unlike anything else in the mining sector' - Mining Technology
Mint's unique technology is explored in a round up of some of the innovative approaches to tackling metal extraction waste.
4th May 2020
"A New Zealand Startup is Using Microbes to Suck Solid Gold Out of E-Waste" - OneZero
Technology blog OneZero explores Mint's technology and how we use microbes to get gold from e-waste.
19th April 2020
Mint's partner Remarkit and the Nelson Environment Centre in the news
Mint's partnerships in New Zealand are beginning to bear fruit. Thanks for all the hard work Nelson Environment Centre, we'll hopefully be able to turn it into gold shortly!
3rd April 2020
Making the most of working from home
Like many parts of the world, Mint's home city is currently in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our scientists & engineers are now busy at their new home offices, translating findings from our pre-commercial plant into a commercial design. And as a further fillip, Mint has been nominated as a finalist in this year's NZ Hi-Tech Awards. Now to see how those cocktail dresses and tuxedos look on Zoom!
13th December 2019
Our first gold!
Mint's team have been busy putting the pre-commercial plant through its paces over the past few months, and we're pleased to announce we've now got something shiny for our efforts - gold! A great way to end the year, and we'll be pushing on in 2020.
23rd September 2019
Pre-commercial plant commissioning complete
Mint has finished installing and testing equipment for our pre-commercial plant, so it's time to see how it all performs. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into getting this build completed, so a moment for our team to savour.
4th July 2019
"Treasure in trash: Kiwi company turns e-waste into precious metals" - Stuff
Mint's CEO, Will Barker, talks to Stuff about our new pre-commercial facility in Auckland and how Mint's process can help tackle the big e-waste problem.
3rd July 2019
Party time!
Before we get into the commissioning phase of our pre-commercial plant, Mint thought it'd be great to celebrate the build progress to date. We're holding an open evening for family, friends & investors to visit our plant and hear more about what we're up to.
22nd May 2019
Pre-commercial plant reactors in place
Mint's new labs are operational, and our pre-commercial plant is starting to take shape. Very excited to have our reactor tanks and agitators installed. The team is working hard to get everything else in place so we can move into the commissioning phase.
14th March 2019
Breaking new ground... and walls... again!
Mint has begun (de)construction of a pre-commercial facility in Auckland. This plant will function as a proving ground for Mint's world-first electronic waste metal recovery technology at a large scale. Operations will commence once all equipment is commissioned (and our walls are back in one piece...).
11th December 2018
Series A funding of $5 million to progress e-waste tech
Mint has successfully closed its NZ$5 million Series A capital raise, enabling Mint to further scale its electronic waste metal recovery technology. With an eye to commercial operations in 2020, this investment round was lead by Movac, with existing investors following strongly on their 2017 seed round contributions.
5th November 2018
Mint highly commended at the IChemE Global Awards 2018
At the recent IChemE Global Awards 2018, Mint was highly commended in the Business Start-Up category, validating the impact of our world-first technology. Mint would like to congratulate all the award winners for their respective achievements.
3rd October 2018
Mint a finalist in not one but two categories of the IChemE Global Awards 2018
Mint is a finalist in both the Biotechnology and Business Start-Up categories in the prestigious IChemE Global Awards 2018. We look forward to the award announcements in November!
24th July 2018
Mint's pioneering technology in the news
TVNZ One News has showcased Mint's world-first biometallurgy technology. This snippet demonstrates the results of Mint's metal scavenging microbes that selectively concentrate gold from dilute feedstocks. Mint's pioneering process is scalable, environmentally friendly and contributes to the circular economy.
8th June 2018
Mint partner mentioned in the New Zealand Honours list
Di Daniels, Social Responsibility Manager at our partner Remarkit, has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for empowering the community through her "Computers in Homes" programme. Remarkit backed this programme for IT literacy by refurbishing donated IT equipment.
5th June 2018
NZ Government grant for Mint
Mint Innovation has been awarded a grant from the New Zealand government, which will enable an investigation into the use of Mint's biometallurgical technology within a New Zealand context. This grant reflects the search for local solutions to help divert e-waste away from landfill.
9th April 2018
"Circuit boards a gold mine" - DEMM
DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing has published an article outlining Mint's cleantech technology. The article details the issues that New Zealand faces with electronic waste, and how Mint will help to alleviate this issue with its biometallurgical solution.
9th February 2018
Team up with Remarkit
Mint have partnered with Remarkit, a leading electronic waste recycler in New Zealand, to build a plant to demonstrate Mint's biometallurgy technology at a practical scale. Valuable metal will be recovered from up to 200 tonnes of scrap printed circuit boards per year.
22nd January 2018
Mint's Australian connection
One of our science advisors, newly-minted Prof Frank Reith at the University of Adelaide, has been making headlines for his recent work in geomicrobiology. We're grateful for his continued advice!
8th September 2017
Mint's pilot plant undergoing trials
Mint's pilot plant is largely complete, and our biometallurgical process is undergoing its first set of scaled-up trials to recover precious metals from electronic waste.
2nd June 2017
Ground broken on Mint's pilot plant
The Mint team has begun building a pilot plant at their Parnell facility. Their first target feedstock is electronic waste, with precious metals being recovered via Mint's biometallurgical process.
17th March 2017
Mint closes out its seed round
Mint has recently completed its seed round capital raise. This investment will be used to build and optimise a pilot plant to recover precious metals from electronic waste.
1st November 2016
Proof-of-concept completed for e-waste to gold
Mint has successfully concluded its proof-of-concept work on recovering gold from electronic waste. Provisional patents have been filed to cover the biometallurgy processes developed.
1st August 2016
Mint Innovation secures pre-seed funding
Mint Innovation, a biometallurgy solutions company, receives pre-seed funding to conduct proof of concept work in its Auckland laboratories.