Alta Resource Technologies is on a mission to reinvent mining by harnessing advanced biochemistry to cost-effectively source the critical raw materials needed to power the 21st century economy and bolster U.S. national security.

Our groundbreaking technology platform leverages custom-designed proteins to precisely extract high-purity rare earth elements and other essential minerals while dramatically reducing costs and the environmental impact of mining.

By tailoring these proteins to bind selectively to individual elements, even at low concentrations in complex mixtures, Alta is positioned to expand access to the building blocks of advanced electronics, energy systems and defense technologies.

Alta’s approach is built on technology licensed from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and co-developed with collaborators including researchers at Pennsylvania State University.

General

What does Alta do?

Alta is pioneering a new mineral separation technology that can extract valuable resources from complex material streams. Using advanced biochemistry, Alta can isolate rare earth elements and other critical minerals with exceptional precision, energy efficiency, and environmental performance.

Why does Alta’s technology matter?

The 21st-century economy runs on advanced materials derived from rare earth elements and other critical minerals and metals that are essential for everything from defense systems and high-performance computing to telecommunications, medical devices, transportation, and energy infrastructure. Today, China controls the vast majority of global processing and refining capacity for these resources, creating strategic vulnerabilities for the U.S. and its allies. Alta’s technology offers a domestic, clean, low cost and scalable way to recover these materials from unconventional sources – bolstering supply chain resilience and economic and national security.

Which organizations are backing Alta?

Alta is backed by leading venture capital firms and government entities, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and In-Q-Tel, that share its mission to strengthen national security and critical mineral supply chains. Alta’s venture partners include DCVC, Voyager Ventures, Orion Industrial Ventures, Overture, WovenEarth, Baruch Future Ventures, and Juniper.

Technology

What technology powers Alta’s separation platform?

Alta’s technology leverages engineered proteins to selectively bind and separate metal ions. By adapting and enhancing these naturally occurring capabilities, Alta has developed a platform that achieves purity levels and selectivity beyond the reach of conventional chemical or thermal extraction methods – especially when dealing with complex feedstocks.

What kinds of feedstocks can Alta process?

Alta’s protein-based separation platform can recover valuable materials from both traditional mining ores and sources that have historically been too complex to process economically, like electronic waste. Our process is especially well-suited to extract target minerals from feedstocks that contain many neighboring (and thus nearly identical) elements on the periodic table as well as those that contain low concentration of the target metals. This versatility allows Alta to work with:

• Mined ores containing rare earth elements and other critical minerals.
• End-of-life magnets in electronic waste (e-waste) from consumer electronics (e.g., hard disk drives, cellphones, certain speakers), energy systems (e.g., EV and wind turbine motors), MRI machines, defense equipment, and other applications.
• Mining tailings and coal ash that contain residual metals.

How does it work at a high level?

Using advanced protein design tools and AI, Alta creates metal-binding proteins with a high affinity for the target metal ion – such as a specific rare earth element or other critical mineral – even when those ions are mixed with other metals that have nearly identical chemical properties. The target metal is then released from the proteins producing a high-purity (>99%) output.

Why is protein-based separation better than traditional methods?

Alta’s technology delivers advantages over conventional chemical or thermal extraction methods. Its engineered proteins are ultra-selective, able to distinguish between metal ions with nearly identical properties, such as neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy). Alta’s process avoids many of the harsh chemicals and repeated exposures used in conventional methods and thus supports a cleaner, more sustainable approach to mineral recovery.

Can this technology be applied beyond rare earths?

Absolutely. Alta’s protein-based platform is a flexible, molecular approach that can be extended to extract other critical minerals from diverse sources – including ores, e-waste, brines, waste from mine sites, and industrial wastewater.

Impact & Applications

Which industries can benefit from Alta’s technology?

Alta’s separation platform can serve any sector that depends on high-purity rare earths, critical minerals, or other metals, including:

• Defense – guidance systems, advanced alloys, secure domestic supply chains;
• Electronics & Semiconductors – smartphones, displays, data centers, AI hardware;
• Energy & Transportation – electric motors, wind turbines, EV batteries; and
• Recycling & Resource Recovery – e-waste, magnets, batteries, industrial waste streams.

What makes Alta’s approach scalable?

Alta’s modular, low-CapEx system can be deployed in parallel production lines at multiple sites. Once the first commercial facility is operational, additional capacity can be added quickly by replicating production modules. This approach reduces time-to-market and allows Alta to respond rapidly to changes in global demand for critical minerals.