Highlights

• Supra Elemental Recovery, a UT Austin spinout, claims 100× performance improvements in recovering gallium and scandium from U.S. waste streams using non-toxic, reusable cartridge technology.
• The company closed a $2M pre-seed round led by Crucible Capital with pilots expected in 2026, targeting minerals where the U.S. is 100% import-dependent, and China dominates refining.
• Key investor cautions:
  • Technology remains pre-commercial with no independent benchmarking at an industrial scale.
  • No disclosed offtake agreements.
  • Unproven economics versus Chinese refining costs.

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Supra Elemental Recovery, (opens in a new tab) a University of Texas at Austin (opens in a new tab) spinout, claims a breakthrough approach to recovering gallium, scandium, and other critical minerals from U.S. waste streams. What’s credible, what remains unproven, and what retail investors should understand about timelines, scale, and real supply-chain impact.

The company founder and CEO is Katie Durham (opens in a new tab).

The Announcement and the Claims

According to a Business Wire release, Supra is spinning out of The University of Texas at Austin with a proprietary, non-toxic recovery platform that uses reusable “sponge-like” cartridges to selectively extract critical minerals from industrial waste, tailings, and electronic scrap. The company is initially targeting gallium and scandium, two materials for which the U.S. is currently 100% import-dependent, with China dominating global refining.

Supra claims early lab and pilot results show up to 100× improvements in selectivity and speed versus incumbent refining methods. The company closed an oversubscribed $2 million pre-seed round led by Crucible Capital (opens in a new tab), with pilots expected in 2026.

On the Money

The strategic diagnosis is correct. Gallium and scandium are critical inputs for semiconductors, aerospace alloys, and defense systems, and U.S. vulnerability is real. Recycling and waste-stream recovery represent one of the fastest theoretical paths to domestic supply without permitting new mines.

Modular, non-toxic processing—if scalable—would directly address the midstream refining bottleneck, the weakest link in the U.S. critical-minerals chain.

Federal research origins and university validation add technical credibility at this stage.

Where Investors Should Apply Caution

This is a pre-commercial technology company, not a supply solution—yet. Claims of “100×” performance improvements are company-reported and not independently benchmarked at industrial scale. Key unknowns remain unanswered:

• Can the system operate economically at throughput levels measured in thousands of tons, not lab batches?
• How feedstock-agnostic is the chemistry across heterogeneous waste streams?
• What is the real cost per kilogram versus Chinese refining once deployed at scale?

Importantly, Supra is not publicly traded, has no offtake agreements disclosed, and no revenue today.

Supply-Chain Context and Investor Takeaway

Supra fits a broader, necessary trend: rebuilding U.S. refining capacity through technology-led, modular approaches, rather than mine-first strategies alone. However, recycling and recovery will complement, not replace, primary mining and magnet manufacturing for years.

For investors, this is an encouraging signal, not a sector re-rating event. Success hinges on scale, economics, and customer adoption—none of which are proven.

Bottom line: The science is plausible, the need is real, and the bottleneck identified is correct. The investment case remains early-stage and execution-dependent. Rare Earth Exchanges™ will be monitoring.

Source: Business Wire press release, Supra Elemental Recovery, Feb. 2026