Mining without mines: Oxford spinout advances geothermal critical mineral recovery

The funding comprises a £670 490 Innovate UK Growth Catalyst grant alongside £1 million in matched investment from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, with co-investment from Oxford Science Enterprises and East X – bringing the company’s total capital raised to £6.2 million.

The funding supports Ascension’s Selective Recovery programme, which aims to enable targeted metal selection underground – reducing processing steps traditionally carried out at the surface and significantly lowering environmental impact.

Rare earth elements and other critical minerals are essential to wind turbines, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and modern defence systems. Yet global supply remains heavily concentrated in a small number of regions, exposing the UK and its allies to significant strategic and supply chain risk.

Ascension addresses this challenge by recovering critical minerals from volcanic glass – a globally distributed and historically untapped resource formed by past volcanic eruptions.

Unlike conventional mining, which relies on surface excavation, energy-intensive milling, and high-temperature chemical processing, Ascension’s approach uses environmentally safe solutions and naturally occurring geothermal heat to recover minerals directly from volcanic rock deposits underground. This eliminates the need for excavation while significantly reducing environmental impact and land disturbance.

Shruti Iyengar, Investment Director, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), commented:

“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.”

Motoaki Sumi, Co-Founder at Ascension commented on the funding:

“For decades, securing critical minerals has meant digging larger mines, processing more rock, and accepting significant environmental damage as the price of progress. That model is outdated.

“By working with natural geothermal systems rather than against them, Ascension is demonstrating that critical minerals can be recovered with far lower environmental impact. This support from Innovate UK, UKI2S, and our co-investors enables us to accelerate development and move towards field validation.

“Ascension’s technology shows it’s possible to access the minerals modern economies depend on by working with natural geothermal systems, rather than against the environment. We’re grateful for the support of UKI2S, Innovate UK and our co-investors, whose backing allows us to accelerate our Selective Recovery programme and further strengthen our technology platform and its potential impact.”

Founded as an Oxford University spinout, Ascension has developed proprietary capabilities across geological mapping, geophysical surveying, reservoir modelling and lixiviant optimisation. The technology builds on research led by Professor Jon Blundy and Professor Mike Kendall, addressing a long-standing industry challenge reconciling the environmental impacts of critical mineral recovery with the urgent need for the materials that enable the green energy transition.

Moving swiftly towards the field trials, Ascension is positioning geothermal technology as a scalable pathway to secure critical minerals without the environmental and geopolitical costs of conventional mining.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/17042026/mining-without-mines-oxford-spinout-advances-geothermal-critical-mineral-recovery/