Vancouver Startup Advances a Cleaner Way to Access Critical Minerals

Vancouver’s Green Manganese announced recently that it has successfully completed initial metallurgical test work.

The startup’s closed-loop, water-based process recovers manganese and other minerals from low-grade ores and legacy and industrial tailings that conventional smelting cannot treat economically.

The test demonstrated that the Canadian cleantech startup’s proprietary hydro-metallurgical process can recover multiple critical metals from poly-metallic nodules through an integrated process.

The BC-based critical minerals processing company reported over 90% recovery of manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper simultaneously.

These are core inputs across battery and electronics supply chains worldwide.

“What makes polymetallic nodules so compelling is that several critical metals are concentrated in a single rock,” explains chief executive officer Alexey Demykin.

“Instead of forcing a next-generation multi-metal feedstock into legacy technologies built for single ores, this new era of critical minerals demands a fundamental shift in processing,” the CEO believes.

Unlike conventional processing methods, Green Manganese’s platform is engineered to extract all principal critical metals from nodules via one integrated system, according to Demykin—all while using up to five times less energy.

“By extracting manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper in one integrated hydrometallurgical circuit, we bypass energy-intensive thermal stages entirely—delivering a streamlined, low-emission pathway to multiple high-value products,” he said.

Founded in 2024 by Demykin alongside Maria Poltorak, Green Manganese was named BC CleanTech Startup of the Year in 2025 before becoming a CleanEnergy.ca Startup-to-Watch for 2026.

The company is working with Scandinavian Steel AB to supply up to 50,000 metric tonnes per year of metallized manganese pellets to the European steel industry.

Founded in 1958, Scandinavian Steel “sees huge potential” in modern cleantech such as Green Manganese, according to the company’s Head of Trading, Erik Eriksson.

“It’s a cost-efficient alternative to traditional Manganese Metal,” he remarked, “that will also help end users navigate geopolitical risks, which is highly sought after in today’s market.”