Oxford spinout raises $2.3M for deep-underground critical minerals tech

Ascension, an Oxford University spinout advancing a geothermal alternative to conventional rare earth mining, has secured £1.7 million ($2.3 million) in combined public and private backing to accelerate development of its underground critical mineral recovery technology.

The funding comprises a £670,490 grant from Innovate UK’s Growth Catalyst program alongside £1 million in matched investment from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, with co-investment from Oxford Science Enterprises and East X. This brings the company’s total capital raised to £6.2 million.

The funding supports Ascension’s Selective Recovery program, which aims to enable targeted metal selection underground — reducing processing steps traditionally carried out at the surface and significantly lowering environmental impact, the company said.

Rare earth elements and other critical minerals are essential to electric vehicles, semiconductors and modern defence systems. Yet global supply remains heavily concentrated in a small number of regions, exposing the UK and its allies to strategic and supply chain risk.

Ascension said it addresses this challenge by recovering critical minerals from volcanic glass — a historically untapped resource formed by past volcanic eruptions.

Conventional mining relies on surface excavation, energy-intensive milling and high-temperature chemical processing, but Ascension’s approach uses naturally occurring geothermal heat to recover minerals directly from volcanic rock deposits underground. This, it said, eliminates the need for excavation while significantly reducing environmental impact and land disturbance.

“For decades, securing critical minerals has meant digging larger mines, processing more rock and accepting significant environmental damage as the price of progress. That model is outdated,” Ascension co founder Motoaki Sumi said.

“By working with natural geothermal systems rather than against them, Ascension is demonstrating that critical minerals can be recovered with far lower environmental impact. This support from Innovate UK, UKI2S and our co-investors enables us to accelerate development and move towards field validation,” Sumi added.