The Urban Mine Nobody's Processing: Recovering Critical Minerals from E-Waste

The U.S. generates 8 million metric tons of e-waste annually, yet ships nearly 100% of its valuable circuit boards overseas for processing. Matt Bedingfield joins Logan to share how Mint Innovation is building domestic processing capacity using biometallurgy—a method that combines chemistry with naturally occurring biological matter to extract critical metals like gold, copper, and silver from printed circuit boards. The conversation covers why the U.S. is 1 million tons short on copper annually, how Mint's 15-month facility buildout challenges the traditional smelter model, and what their Longview, Texas facility opening in 2027 means for domestic manufacturing.