mineral-processing
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Alta Resource Technologies
Alta Resource Technologies is a Boulder, Colorado deep-tech startup using engineered proteins to selectively separate rare earth elements and other critical minerals from low-grade ores, mining tailings, and electronic waste. Its 'precision mining' platform, licensed from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and co-developed with Pennsylvania State University, binds individual metals with high selectivity, aiming to cut the cost and environmental damage of conventional chemical refining while helping secure a domestic U.S. supply of materials used in EVs, wind turbines, electronics, and defense systems.
Nathan Ratledge
Nathan Ratledge is the co-founder and CEO of Alta Resource Technologies, a Boulder, Colorado startup using computationally designed proteins to pull rare earth elements out of low-grade ores, mine tailings, and electronic waste. A Stanford-trained economist and environmental scientist who once ran a poverty-and-electrification research agenda across East Africa, he pivoted from policy and academia to deep tech, betting that biology - not brute-force chemistry - is the way to break China's grip on the critical-mineral supply chain. Alta has raised about $10 million in seed funding from DCVC, Voyager Ventures, Orion Industrial Ventures and In-Q-Tel (the CIA's venture arm), and advanced to the final phase of DARPA's EMBER program alongside Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.