Date: Jun 14, 2016 Source: PR Newswire (
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AUSTIN, Texas, June 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban Mining Company, ("Urban Mining" or "the company"), developers of the proprietary Magnet-to-Magnetärecycling process, is pleased to announce the completion of a $25M Series A financing for the construction and operation of a magnet recycling and manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Austin, Texas.
"The first step towards commercializing our technology is capital intensive," commented Scott Dunn, CEO of privately held UMC, "and our Series A financing reflects the confidence of our team and our investors in Urban Mining's product and business model."
The company's patented Magnet-to-Magnetärecycling approach takes scrap rare earth magnets and reprocesses them into new, high-performance magnets, using ground-breaking technology. "The magnetic properties of our magnets are designed to customer specifications," said Miha Zakotnik, COO of Urban Mining. "The final shape of our magnets is not dependent on the feedstock that we use, and our patented Grain-Boundary Engineeringä process gives us complete control over the final composition, grade and magnetic performance of our products."
The company will use the Series A funding to build and operate a manufacturing facility, capable of producing 250 tons of sintered NdFeB rare earth magnets per year within the next two years. Capacity will be expanded to 1,000 tons per year in a second phase of operation.
"We have worked hard to secure scrap rare-earth materials to support our recycling process because Urban Mining's products are already in high demand for green and high-tech applications such as electric motors, wind turbines, and electric vehicles," said Peter Afiuny, Executive Vice President. "Our goal is to create a closed-loop supply chain that delivers a high performance product in a market where price volatility and material supply has threatened the development of green technology."
Urban Mining Company has planned early delivery of its laboratory and prototyping capabilities including state-of-the-art equipment for materials processing and advanced property and microstructure analysis. The laboratory should be operational by the end of Summer 2016. "This lab facility will provide us with prototyping capabilities for our partners and customers," said Dr. Zakotnik.
About Urban Mining Company
Urban Mining Company ("UMC") is a private US-based company and the developer of the patented Magnet-to-Magnetä recycling process, for the cost-effective production of high-performance sintered rare earth NdFeB magnets from end-of-life and scrap feedstocks.
