Copper biomining: Europe’s answer to critical mineral supply gaps and resilience fears?

Without copper, Europe cannot achieve electrification or deliver AI-powered economies of the future.

Copper is essential for the wiring that connects solar panels to the grid, the cooling systems for data centres, and the charging infrastructure fuelling the shift to electric vehicles. Globally, nearly 30 million tones of copper are consumed annually, and the copper market is expected to top $548 billion by 2034. 

But conventional copper mining is hugely environmentally damaging. Extracting and processing copper ore is energy-intensive and polluting, with crushing and grinding alone accounting for a staggering 3-4% of global energy usage. 

The problem is only set to get worse. Copper demand is projected to grow 26% by 2035 and 70% by 2050, and current production trends could push lifecycle emissions from the sector up to 240Mt CO_2eq per year.

And demand is not the only thing driving up emissions in the sector. Ore grades are declining, so companies must extract and process more rock to get the same copper output. This means higher energy use, water consumption, chemical input and waste. 

Declining ore grades and rising demand also means that Europe, which is already heavily dependent on copper imports from Latin America and Africa, faces a looming supply gap. (European countries struggle to produce copper because around 70% of European reserves are deeply buried or environmentally sensitive, such as in Spain, Serbia and Sweden). Yet copper demand is expected to increase to 36.6Mt, creating an 18% supply gap equivalent to 6.5 Mt in copper by 2031.  

Europe cannot electrify without guaranteed access to copper supplies, which is why the EU has designated copper a strategic raw material. Put simply, European countries can no longer afford to rely on unstable global supply chains, or to let emissions continue to rise in the sector. We need a sustainable alternative, and this is where biomining innovation could come into play.

What is biomining and how could new innovations solve the copper conundrum

Mining giants are facing enormous pressure on margins due to declining ore grades, as energy-intensive processes drive up costs. But opening up new mines is not a simple solution, because permitting alone can take a decade, and it takes 15-18 years on average to bring a new copper mine online. Even if dozens of new mines were approved today, they would not produce meaningful volumes this decade. So, in the near term, traditional mining cannot close the supply gap.

Against this backdrop, many mining giants have begun looking into alternative ways to improve yield, including biomining. 

Biomining uses microorganisms to extract metals from ore and mine waste, and has clear advantages. It can access low-grade material, uses less energy than smelting, and could help reduce the need to open new mines. 

The concept has existed for decades and been used by giants like Rio Tinto, often in the form of bioleaching combined with acid-based heap leaching. Around 20-25% of global copper production today already involves the process. For example, the Morenci mine in the US operates a bioleaching plant with a capacity of 230,000 tonnes per year.

However, biomining has historically been seen as a black-box process with unpredictable yields. Yet recent technological advances – including advances in microbial engineering, sensing, and real-time data analytics – are beginning to change this and render biomining more controllable and attractive. 

Together with the BioInnovation Institute (BII), we have explored how biological approaches could reshape critical mineral supply chains, starting with copper. BII is a Copenhagen-based incubator financing pre-seed/seed stage companies in the Human and Planetary Health sectors with up to EUR 3mln. During this research, we have identified several new startups that are experimenting with improved biomining approaches and novel refining technology, including using mine tailings and filtration-based methods. They include:

• Companies such as Endolith and 1849 Bio are developing microbial platforms that adapt dynamically to changing heap conditions. 
• Companies working on complementary approaches like Giraffe Bio, which is enhancing froth flotation with bio-molecules to recover more copper from higher-grade ores.
• Magmatic Bio and SiTration - companies using molecular filters to extract copper from mine tailings.‍
• Still Bright, a company developing electrochemical processes that produce 98% pure copper from complex ores without smelting.

These innovations are promising, but they remain early-stage. And, for now, most biomining companies still feed into the conventional mining model and rely on chemical processes, rather than offering a fundamental solution.

Resilience and transformation of a polluting sector: where we see the biomining opportunity  

We are interested in this space because it represents both a climate and a resilience opportunity. If Europe cannot secure a home-grown supply of copper, we will continue to be exposed to geopolitical tensions and shocks. For example, around 40% of global copper refining capacity is concentrated in China, creating a strategic choke point. A biomining company that could mature into a scalable, predictable, low-chemical, smelting-free solution would represent a billion-dollar opportunity.

At World Fund, we believe the optimal biomining company, the company we would look to invest in, would be one that completely cuts out the chemicals involved in leaching, eliminates energy-intensive smelting, and can work with the lower grade ore resources that are becoming more common. In short, we are looking for a transformative technology, rather than incremental solutions that perpetuate conventional mining. We have not yet been able to find a company that meets this bar, but we are on the lookout. 

The BII takes a slightly contrarian view. They also see the biggest transformative potential in companies that can effectively cut out mining’s most chemical and energy-intensive steps or companies attempting to establish entirely new supply chains all together. But, at the same time, they see significant opportunities in technologies that enable them to maximise the value of the resources already at our disposal today. Optimised biomining approaches, capable of efficiently extracting more minerals from low-grade or increasingly complex ores hold - on a global scale - a potential to help narrow imminent supply gaps.

Other levers: recycling and equipment innovation

We also see nearer-term opportunities that could help close the copper supply gap while reducing emissions. 

Recycling and circularity: Europe has strong capabilities in urban mining and end-of-life recovery. Companies like Recupere Metals are developing processes to recover copper from discarded electronics and infrastructure, which can reduce pressure on primary supply while avoiding the environmental cost of new mining.

We believe Recupere, and those companies identified earlier in this piece, represent a vital opportunity to do more with elements already extracted, including: working with sidelined lower grade ore and mineralised waste; more efficient extraction processes for sulphide and oxide ores; and decentralised, smart smelting processes that run at ambient/low temperature and require little energy.

Equipment innovation: Rock crushing and grinding account for over half of mine-site energy use, and incremental improvements here could have outsized impact on costs and emissions. Europe’s strengths could also lie in developing smarter mining equipment such as energy-efficient drills, crushers and grinders. New drilling technologies could also help access deeper deposits in the future.

These areas both align with Europe’s existing industrial strengths and regulatory frameworks, and could deliver tangible results more quickly than trying to open new mines or scale immature biomining platforms. We believe companies like RockBurst and i-rox represent an opportunity to make waves here. 

Biomining offers the potential for a step change, and nearer-term solutions represent an opportunity to cut copper sector emissions now as demand soars. If you are innovating in this sector, please get in touch with World Fund principal Dr. Nadine Geiser on nadine@worldfund.vc.

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About Dr. Nadine Geiser, Principal, World Fund

Dr. Nadine Geiser holds a PhD in Biotechnology from ETH Zurich and has led on several food, agriculture and land use investments for World Fund, including fermentation leader, Farmless. She previously closed deals at venture firms including M Ventures, Bank Vontobel, Redalpine, and sits on the advisory board of the Bioinnovation Institute - Novo Nordisk Foundation. 

About Arnoud Klokke, Senior Associate, BII

Arnoud Klokke holds a MSc in Bio-pharmaceutical Sciences and in Business Administration. Arnoud started off his career at Inkef, focusing on Seed to Series B stage investments in the pharmaceutical industry and for the past 4 years has worked on pre-seed to seed stage investments in the DeepTech/Climate space at the BII in Copenhagen.