Giraffe Bio raises $6.4 million for copper recovery technology

Giraffe Bio announced a $6.4 million seed funding round on October 13. The startup will use the money to scale manufacturing and run industrial trials of biochemical reagents for copper processing.

Orion Industrial Ventures led the round, with participation from BHP Ventures, Twynam, Air Capital and Baruch Future Ventures. The company develops compounds intended to help recover valuable minerals from ore that has already been mined.

The reagents are designed for flotation, a process that separates minerals in water. The company says the molecules are produced using biotechnology and then introduced into existing processing operations. Living microbes do not need to be maintained at the mine itself.

Co-founder and chief executive Alejandro Buffo Sempé told TechCrunch that the technology could improve copper recovery by up to 5%. That is the developer's assessment. The financing announcement does not establish that the benefit has already been achieved at industrial scale.

In its own release, Giraffe Bio said it is moving toward larger pilot programmes and industrial validation. The company is starting with copper but plans to adapt the platform for other minerals.