Along with metal, Boston Metallic has additionally labored to make use of its expertise with different metals, and a subsidiary (Boston Metallic do Brasil) is establishing a business facility in Brazil to provide niobium, tantalum, and tin. The funding will assist help that facility’s operation in addition to future efforts to provide vital metals like vanadium, nickel, and chromium, says CEO Tadeu Carneiro. The funding comes after the corporate confronted cash-flow issues following an industrial accident on the Brazil facility earlier this yr.
Boston Metallic’s core expertise is named molten oxide electrolysis (MOE). It includes operating electrical present by way of a reactor full of ore dissolved in a molten electrolyte. The electrical energy heats all the pieces as much as about 1,600 °C (3,000 °F) and drives chemical reactions that separate the specified steel (or metals) from the ore. The steel gathers on the backside of the reactor, the place it may be siphoned off.
In early 2025, Boston Metallic accomplished the biggest run of its pilot industrial cell in Woburn, Massachusetts, producing a couple of ton of metal.
However the focus is at the moment on making different metals, that are extra helpful and might command the next worth. The corporate’s Brazilian subsidiary is working to check and begin up an industrial-scale plant that takes in a low-grade materials and makes a mix of vital metals. Niobium, for instance, is utilized in some metal alloys, in addition to in alloys used to make jet engines and the superconducting magnets of MRI scanners. Tantalum is utilized in aerospace functions like rocket nozzles and turbine blades, in addition to medical units and electronics.
Development on the Brazil plant kicked off in 2024 and took about 18 months, however the firm bumped into some challenges that delayed official startup.
