Five years from now, the world might start running short on copper, the critical mineral used in everything from data centers to electric vehicles. Absent any changes, the world could face a severe shortfall as early as 2040, with demand exceeding supply by as much as 25%.
If copper seems expensive today, just wait a few years.
Companies and investors have been pouring money into the sector as demand ramps up. AI minerals startup KoBold, for example, raised $537 million last year to exploit a copper deposit it found in Zambia.
But with a little help from some microbes, today’s copper producers might be able to beat the shortage. One startup, Transition Metal Solutions, says it has found a way to boost copper production by 20% to 30% using additives to boost the microbes’ performance. Think of it as probiotics for copper mines.
To scale up its technology, Transition Metal Solutions has raised a $6 million seed round, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The round was led by Transition Ventures with participation from Astor Management AG, Climate Capital, Dolby Family Ventures, Essential Capital, Juniper VC, Kayak Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Possible Ventures, SOSV, and Understorey Ventures.
Microbes have always been key players in the copper world, helping the metal break out of its mineral form so that we can refine it into pure metal. Companies have been working for years to coax microbes into squeezing more copper out of ore, but according to Sasha Milshteyn, co-founder and CEO of Transition, they’ve been going about it the wrong way.
Typically, companies isolate or engineer strains that show promise in boosting copper production. They grow large quantities of them and pour them over an ore heap, where the microbes soak in and get to work.
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“That by and large hasn’t paid off,” Milshteyn told TechCrunch. “Often they will see kind of a boost early on and then it just kind of falls off — or they don’t see any boost at all.”
Milshteyn suspects that part of the problem is that microbes aren’t solo actors. It’s like casting a star without a supporting cast. Microbes live in diverse communities where each plays a role. Bumping up the population of one strain can only do so much.
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