Horizon Series 2: Selective Liberation & The Future of Comminution
In Horizon Series 1, we established how replacing mechanical grinding with the CoreBurst™ process addresses the mining industry’s massive energy penalty and Scope 3 emissions. However, comminution is not simply about making rocks smaller. Its primary objective is liberating valuable minerals from the surrounding waste rock (gangue).
This brings us to the concept of Selective Liberation. Thermodynamic fracture does not just use less energy—it breaks rock more intelligently, fundamentally improving the quality and yield of the extracted critical minerals.
The Problem with Brute Force (Traditional Grinding)
Traditional ball mills and grinding circuits rely on compressive force. They blindly smash rock regardless of its internal structure or mineralogy.
This indiscriminate approach creates a significant engineering challenge known as the "over-grinding" penalty. Traditional mills frequently pulverize valuable minerals into ultra-fine particles, commonly referred to as "slimes."
These ultra-fines trigger severe downstream consequences. They are notoriously difficult and expensive to recover in standard flotation circuits. For operators, this translates directly to lost revenue in the form of unrecovered critical minerals (like nickel) and leaves behind a fine tailings profile that is significantly harder to manage and store safely.
The CoreBurst™ Solution (Thermodynamic Fracture)
Instead of applying external compressive force, CoreBurst™ uses thermodynamic fracture to break the rock from the inside out.
During the pressurization stage, supercritical CO₂ is injected and naturally permeates the rock's existing micro-fractures and mineral grain boundaries. When the pressure is rapidly released, the expanding fluid pulls the rock apart using tensile stress. (As a reminder, rock is ~10 times weaker under tensile stress than compressive stress).
This mechanism achieves true Selective Liberation. Because the thermodynamic fracture naturally propagates along the paths of least resistance, the physical boundaries between the valuable mineral and the waste rock, the target minerals are cleanly separated rather than being indiscriminately pulverized.
The Lab-Demonstrated Benefits
Our testing demonstrates that selective liberation via thermodynamic fracture offers clear engineering and economic advantages over traditional mechanical comminution:
Higher Recovery Rates: Cleaner separation precisely at the grain boundary means more valuable critical minerals can be successfully recovered in downstream processing, whether through flotation, gravity separation, magnetic separation, or density separation.
Reduction of Ultra-Fines: Thermodynamic fracture produces a narrower, more predictable particle size distribution (PSD). By avoiding brute-force crushing, the process minimizes the creation of unrecoverable slimes.
Improved Tailings Profile: Generating coarser, more uniform waste rock yields tailings that are safer to store, easier to manage, and perfectly primed for the permanent CO₂ mineralization process detailed in Series 1.
The Roadmap & Next Steps
We have the batch data demonstrating these clear liberation benefits. The next phase of our engineering roadmap is proving this performance continuously.
We are currently advancing Phase I: the construction of our continuous-flow proof-of-concept prototype, which will be followed by the 50 kg/hour Gamma pilot. These systems will allow our engineering team to continuously measure, log, and optimize this selective liberation profile across a wide variety of ultramafic ore samples.
Join the CoreBurst™ Deployment
Investment We are currently raising a $2M CAD Seed Round to fund a continuous-flow PoC prototype and unlock a $1M non-dilutive match.
Partnership Are you a mining operator processing ultramafic ores? Partner with us to test your rock's liberation profile and inform our continuous-flow scale-up.