Critical minerals, without a mine?
Oxford University spin-out recovers critical minerals and rare-earth elements without excavation and surface processing.
The approach uses naturally occurring geothermal heat to dissolve and extract minerals directly from volcanic glass deposits underground.
Ascension has secured £1.7mln in combined Innovate UK Growth Catalyst grant and UKI2S-backed investment, bringing total capital raised to £6.2mln.
This grant advances the development of Ascension’s Selective Metal Recovery technology for extracting critical minerals from underground geothermal fields.
Shruti Iyengar, Investment Director, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), comments, ‘Critical mineral supply is one of the great chokepoints of the energy transition - and competing for the same finite deposits is a race to the bottom.
‘Ascension is asking a different question entirely. By combining geothermal heat with new geoscience, the team is unlocking mineral resources that have sat beyond the reach of conventional methods - and extracting them without the destructive footprint the industry is known for.
'We backed them because the science is genuinely novel, the team brings rare depth across frontier geoscience and commercial execution, and the opportunity to build real sovereign self-sufficiency in critical materials is one the UK cannot afford to miss.’
Ascension has developed proprietary capabilities across geological mapping, geophysical surveying, reservoir modelling and lixiviant optimisation. The company is currently moving towards the field trials.
