WHAT IS MINT INNOVATION AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
Mint Innovation (MINT) is an innovative New Zealand start-up that has designed a world-first process for extracting valuable metals from waste without harming the environment. MINT uses biometallurgy to recover valuable metals including gold from electronic waste from various feedstocks. The company has developed recovery processes that use inexpensive chemicals and naturally occurring microorganisms to bind and concentrate specific metals under environmentally benign conditions.
MINT’s vision is to deploy facilities in cities around the world to enable them to extract value from their waste streams locally. Recyclers could then use this revenue to fund recycling efforts.
“Metals recycled by MINT have a lower carbon footprint, as well as reducing the environmental degradation associated with mining and other forms of extraction. Buyers around the world now have access to green recycled metals”
– Alex Parker, MINT Innovation
MINTʼS BUSINESS MODEL
MINT utilises a toll refining model. MINT takes recovered materials from recyclers and processes the materials to extract valuable metals. MINT then sells those metals to a refinery such as the gold mint. MINT retains a toll, which covers costs and a margin, and then pays the remaining value back to the recyclers.
MINT’S IMPACT
Our way of life and our economy rely on certain metals. Gold, for example, is a vital component of printed circuit boards that run virtually all our technology. MINT extracts gold and other valuable metals from waste without harming the environment. Consequently, there is the potential for less need to disturb the environment to extract metals through mining; less damage to the land and waterways from dumping toxic waste metals into landfills, and less harm to the environment from current fossil-fuel intensive extraction methods. In addition, MINT provides a revenue stream to recyclers so that they can continue their important waste diversion work.