We design and implement scalable technology solutions that secure critical minerals and rare earth metal supply chains into the next century, empowering organizations to accelerate growth, optimize operations, and build products for today and into the future.
Innovation, Delivered.
The demand for nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and other metals, essential inputs for defense systems, clean energy, and critical infrastructure, is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. By 2050, global demand for these metals is projected to rise by 400%, placing severe strain on already fragile supply chains.
Meeting this demand through traditional mining alone is no longer viable. An estimated 291 new mines would need to be developed by 2030 — yet the average mine takes 29 years from discovery to production. The math is clear: we are already out of time.
There is almost no onshore processing and refinery capacity in the US, and it relies on foreign sources for over 85% of critical minerals and rare earth refining. Its national security and economy are sitting on a powder keg.
SEAME Processing and Refining exists to close this gap.
We are an innovative start-up delivering immediate, real-world solutions through advanced processing and refining technologies. SEAME has designed a midstream critical and rare earth metals processing and refining capable plant to process at least 1.3 million tonnes per annum in its standard plant configuration. Our core process is a game-changer: we can extract up to 99% of metals from unconventional sources like bauxite and bauxite waste, lateritic ores and their waste streams, and polymetallic nodules.
Our approach enables a decisive shift away from today’s vulnerable, opaque, and geopolitically concentrated supply chains toward a system that is secure, resilient, and domestically anchored. By integrating raw material supplies, primary and waste treatment processing, and refining into commodities, critical metals, and select rare earth elements, SEAME supports the creation of an independent midstream processing and refining industry, placing strategic control back into the hands of U.S. authorities and industry.
This isn't just another mining project; it’s an innovative, transformative, zero-waste "above-ground" solution that builds a secure domestic supply without leaving behind any toxic tailings. We aren’t just looking for a way to mine more efficiently; we’re looking for a way to eliminate harmful mining practices. We’re looking to turn a multi-billion-dollar environmental liability into the foundation of an alternative supply to support American metal independence. Now, we need to scale the infrastructure to bridge that "demand wall" before 2035 hits.
From electric vehicle batteries and military-grade alloys to semiconductors and next-generation renewable energy technologies, SEAME underpins the industrial and energy security of the future. Best of all, it’s a zero-waste, closed-loop system. We’re securing the vital materials the US needs while simultaneously erasing a legacy environmental liability and the cost of maintaining these facilities.
Your secure and resilient critical minerals supply chain begins with us.
Our Team
Mr Stephen Rust is a multidisciplinary engineer with nearly 40 years of experience in the design, manufacture, installation, and commissioning of industrial equipment and specialised machinery. His career spans the UK, Europe, South Africa, and several international project environments, giving him extensive exposure to large-scale industrial operations and bespoke engineering solutions.
He has worked across the full engineering lifecycle, contributing to both mass-manufacturing facilities and the development of purpose-built plants and automated systems. His expertise includes press-shop technologies, special-purpose machinery, and equipment designed for sensitive environments such as nuclear and radioactive facilities. He has also been deeply involved in alloy and stainless-steel processing, aluminium production, and advanced metals-industry applications.
A major part of Mr Rust’s career has focused on basic steelmaking and downstream processing, particularly in service-centre operations. He has delivered UK and international projects involving contract works, equipment integration, and turnkey engineering assignments for industries spanning carbon steels, stainless steels, and aluminium.
In addition to his metals-sector experience, Mr Rust has contributed to renewable-energy systems and water-technology solutions, including seawater desalination and wastewater treatment. His career reflects a rare combination of technical depth, practical implementation expertise, and internationally rooted engineering judgment.
Dr Johan Kruger is an experienced contract management specialist with more than 40 years of expertise in financial control, project governance, and contract administration across major capital projects. He began his career in the 1970s as an accountant at Johannesburg Consolidated Investments (JCI), where he built a strong foundation in cost management and financial systems. This early experience supported his move into the contracting sector, where he helped design and implement integrated project-control systems linking base-date costing, CPM planning, and treasury management.
At Babcock International, Dr Kruger successfully adapted these systems from large-scale applications to smaller contract-level projects, significantly improving performance. He later applied similar methodologies to major initiatives such as the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and the Mossgas offshore oil and gas development, incorporating advanced concepts like purchasing power parity to strengthen cost planning in volatile environments.
His work increasingly focused on controlling scope and cost creep, leading him to expand into the fields of law and alternative dispute resolution (ADR). As a consultant, he has advised governments, parastatals, private contractors, and legal firms on projects ranging from USD 10 million to USD 4.6 billion across Africa, South America, and Canada. He has held senior roles, including Project Director, Commercial Director, Contracts Manager, and Legal Advisor.
Dr Kruger combines financial, contractual, and legal expertise, making him a trusted advisor on complex, multi-stakeholder capital projects.
Mr Grant Davison is a project-focused strategic communications and marketing leader with over 20 years of experience delivering complex, multi-country campaigns and organisational transformation projects across Africa and internationally. As the former Head of Marketing, Communications, and Stakeholder Relations for the UK Department for Business & Trade for Africa, he led the integration of three separate teams into a unified regional MarComms Hub supporting 19 markets—an organisational change initiative that improved alignment, performance, and operational efficiency.
He project-managed the rollout of DBT Africa’s Strategic Communications and Marketing Plan, driving coherence across trade and investment campaigns and achieving major performance gains, earned media and award-winning global results.
During his tenure with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Grant led flagship regional campaigns such as COP-26, the UK-Africa Investment Summit, COVAX, and CHOGM. He coordinated multi-disciplinary teams across several countries, managed complex stakeholder environments, and strengthened crisis communications systems for priority markets.
In the private sector, he directed large-scale client programmes and brand activation projects for national and provincial government departments and corporate sector clients. His work included securing major corporate accounts, leading business development initiatives, and delivering premium campaigns and events for global brands.
Mr Davison is recognised for project leadership, campaign strategy, and delivering measurable, organisation-wide impact.
Our Processes
SEAME’s uses an advanced metallurgical platform that represents a transformative shift from traditional "single-metal" extraction to a circular, "full value" recovery system, achieving a ±98% efficiency across all individual metals. By integrating a modular core configuration with a closed-loop nitrate leaching process, the technology recycles 99% of reagents and water, delivering the lowest global production costs while maintaining a definitive zero-waste footprint.
Engineered for versatility, this standalone platform functions as a primary extraction plant, a seamless retrofit for existing facilities, or a high-impact remediation tool designed to eliminate the environmental hazards of legacy waste. By converting toxic streams and stranded ores into saleable market products, the system effectively replaces outdated HPAL, RKEF, and Bayer-style processes with a sustainable, modular solution that sanitises the environment and reclaims land for productive reuse.
01
Lateritic Ore Processing and Refining
Technological Ability: This platform serves as a primary standalone extraction system that processes the entire laterite profile at atmospheric pressure. It utilises an integrated nitric acid plant and leaching section to extract nickel, cobalt, and magnesium, alongside bulk iron and scandium.
Superiority: It replaces traditional HPAL and RKEF plants with a modular, "close-coupled" or standalone configuration. Unlike HPAL, which strands high-magnesium saprolite ores, this system ensures there are no stranded metals, capturing 98% of the ore's total elemental value.
Environmental Benefits: It completely removes the need for tailings impoundments. Instead of producing toxic acidic slurries, the process outputs saleable market products and an inert residue that can be used for land rehabilitation, eliminating the direct environmental impact of mining waste.
High-priority US companies: Emerging US battery metal projects, including Tamarack (Minnesota) and U.S. Strategic Metals (Missouri). While these sites focus on sulphides and complex tailings, our technology solution provides a critical zero-waste insurance policy by retrofitting existing circuits to achieve ±98% metal recovery. By replacing high-energy smelting with atmospheric leaching, these projects can convert iron-rich waste into saleable hematite and produce battery-grade MHP directly. This modular integration de-risks the permitting process by eliminating toxic tailings, aligning perfectly with US Department of Energy mandates for sustainable, domestic critical mineral supply chains.
02
Polymetallic Nodules Processing and Refining
Technological Ability: The system is designed to be alternatively configured for seabed resources, seamlessly integrating cascaded metal extraction sections to isolate copper, manganese, nickel, and cobalt from nodules and seabed mud.
Superiority: Traditional smelting methods are energy-intensive and lose critical minerals to slag. This core configuration uses a fully enclosed drying, grinding, and leaching circuit that minimises energy loss and recovers every commodity, critical, and Rare Earth Element (REE) contained within the material.
Environmental Benefits: By operating as a closed-loop platform with 99% reagent recovery, it prevents any discharge into the marine or terrestrial environment. The modular nature allows it to be co-located or sea-based, reducing the carbon footprint associated with transporting raw, wet materials.
High-priority future markets: A specific advanced metallurgical platform provides a zero-waste, high-efficiency solution for polymetallic nodule and seabed mud refining. It avoids the environmental hazards of traditional smelting or high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) by using a closed-loop, atmospheric-pressure hydrometallurgical process. This method achieves approximately 98% recovery of all valuable metals (nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese), which are produced as saleable co-products. The process eliminates the need for toxic tailings dams or deep-sea waste disposal, instead generating an inert residue that can be used for land rehabilitation and in the construction industry. It also consumes significantly less energy and utilises cheaper, standard equipment than conventional methods.
03
Bauxite (Red Mud) Processing and Remediation
Technological Ability: This technology functions as a standalone waste-stream rehabilitation system for the Bayer process. It extracts residual aluminium and iron while specifically targeting the recovery of high-value Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from caustic red mud.
Superiority: It renders the Bayer-style waste model obsolete. Whether retrofitted to an existing plant or deployed at legacy sites, it reprocesses toxic waste into saleable industrial-grade products. It even recovers and packages the original reagents and chemicals found within old storage dams.
Environmental Benefits: It facilitates the sanitisation and removal of legacy impoundments. By treating and recycling wastewater and converting hazardous sludge into market-ready materials, it allows contaminated land to be fully reclaimed and returned to productive reuse.
High-priority US targets: Gramercy, Louisiana, and Gregory and Point Comfort, Texas. These legacy Bayer-process sites contain millions of tonnes of caustic red mud (pH 13+), threatening sensitive ecosystems like the Mississippi River and Lavaca Bay.
Your Questions, Answered
How is the SEAME core configuration process different from standard bauxite refining technologies?
The SEAME core configuration process is an innovative application of existing technology that integrates a turnkey process plant, unlike traditional methods like HPAL or the Bayer process. It addresses core U.S. and Texas priorities for innovation and efficiency. This platform fundamentally changes how the industry processes both primary ores and waste by enabling full-metal extraction (up to ±99% efficiency) and zero tailings, replacing less efficient methods that produce vast amounts of toxic waste and only extract specific metals.
What is the "SEAME core configuration process" exactly, and how does the nitric acid leaching work?
The SEAME core configuration process is a primary metals extraction and waste stream remediation platform. It uses a patented system involving nitric acid leaching to dissolve raw materials into their elemental components. A key innovation is the recovery and recycling of ±99% of the nitric acid, ensuring cost efficiency and minimal environmental impact. The minimal environmental footprint aligns with the goals of agencies like the TCEQ and EPA, while the efficiency supports Texas's focus on innovative and sustainable use of natural resources.
Can the technology be applied to other mineral ores besides red mud and nickel laterites?
Yes, the plant is designed with multi-purpose processing capacity for various feedstocks, including bauxite, polymetallic nodules, nickel lateritic ore, and their associated waste streams. This flexibility supports both the U.S. federal strategy for diversifying raw material sources and Texas's interest in the rare earth elements and mineral mining sector as a source of high-tech materials.
How does the modular design benefit implementation and scalability?
The plant is designed with modular construction, allowing components to be manufactured and pre-commissioned off-site. This approach significantly expedites project delivery, with a complete plant ready for cold commissioning on-site in just 36 months. Faster deployment aligns with both federal goals to expedite critical mineral production and the Texas government's focus on efficient, fast-tracked economic development projects through programs like the Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) Act.
How does this project support the USA's goal of securing a domestic supply chain for critical metals?
The U.S. is heavily import-dependent for many critical minerals, a significant national security risk. SEAME's model addresses this by focusing on localized processing of sovereign resources in Texas, directly supporting the federal strategy to strengthen the domestic supply chain for key materials. This helps reduce the national vulnerability to foreign supply disruptions.
What is the specific economic impact of the Texas facility on the U.S. and Texas aluminum market?
Focusing on processing red mud in Texas, the facility will produce +/-150ktpa of aluminum for the U.S. market, which currently imports most of its metal. For Texas, this project will help expand a target industry sector, create jobs for Texans, and attract significant capital investment, aligning with Governor Abbott's "Bigger. Better. Texas." economic development strategic plan. The project could also be eligible for state incentives like the Texas Enterprise Fund or the JETI program.
Will SEAME's process help reduce geopolitical tensions related to metals supply?
Yes, the project aligns with federal policy to reduce reliance on adversarial nations for critical minerals. By establishing a secure, domestic source of materials in Texas, SEAME helps create a more resilient supply chain. Texas benefits from this by attracting high-tech and defense industries essential to economic and national security.
Ready to explore what’s possible?
Connect with our Projects Team today to see how we bridge the gap between vision and reality. Let’s collaborate to engineer a custom strategy that transforms your boldest ideas into measurable, high-stakes results.