Mint hosts Minister Andrew Bayly at Sydney biorefinery to showcase how we're turning e-waste into circular green metals.

We recently had the pleasure of hosting New Zealand Hon Andrew Bayly, the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing, and the Minister of Statistics, at our Sydney e-waste biorefinery. As part of his trip across the Tasman, Minister Bayly visited several manufacturing research centres and high-performance manufacturing sites in Sydney and Wollongong to explore the opportunities within the industry that could be beneficial to the New Zealand economy.  

It is encouraging to learn that the Government of New Zealand is engaging with companies that specialise in exporting clean technology. Minister Bayly wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the journey undertaken by us since 2016, and the support we received in order to commercialise a proprietary technology that is both environmentally and economically viable. By doing so, the government aims to offer more support to encourage more companies, like ours, to scale up quickly through R&D.

It’s always a pleasure to share our story and mission of turning waste into value by creating truly circular green metals. During the tour, we showed our mission is becoming a reality through our low-impact, clean technology. It was a great opportunity to highlight the positive impacts of our work on the path to net zero by decarbonising industries and electrifying economies, and the benefits of how we operate with local businesses and communities.

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How does our technology work?  

Using patented technology, Mint extracts high-demand metals from printed circuit boards (PCBs) in old electronics. These electronics include computers, printers, scanners, mobile phones, and more.  

The process starts from data destruction where PCBs are milled to a sand consistency. It then goes through a multi-step extraction process to extract and refine metals such as gold and copper.    

Valuable materials are reused in industries that depend on technology. These industries include new electronics, transportation, clean energy, healthcare, and defense.  

Chemicals used are then recycled as part of the process so they can be reused rather than disposed of as a waste product.  

Supporting local business operations  

Mint’s biorefinery in Sydney has been in operation since 2022. We now work with several electronic waste recycling businesses across Australia, helping to reduce the need to export waste overseas to have it recycled.  

As our processes use low temperatures and naturally occurring biomass, we produce significantly lower carbon emissions than conventional e-waste recycling methods, such as smelting. This means we can set up biorefineries within existing cities to create access for recyclers, without causing any environmental and health risks.  

The result is streamlined operations and less administration saving time and transport costs associated with export. Cash flow is also often optimised as payments for e-waste can be made at the time of drop off rather than waiting up to several months for overseas processing.  

As governments, businesses, and consumers begin prioritising sustainable values and practices to align with climate initiatives and benchmarks, it’s key that there are resources available to support the incredible potential and innovation of the technology industry. This will help create sustainable solutions that are both viable and add value to local businesses.  

Learn more about what we do here.

If you’re a recycler interested in processing your PCB with us, get in touch with our team: recycling@mint.bio

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