Urban Mining – How Novasensa is Turning Trash into Treasure

Deep in an industrial lab in Delhi, a team of engineers in lab coats watch intently as a blue-green liquid swirls in a reactor. Moments ago, that liquid was a heap of crushed smartphone batteries – so-called “black mass” rich in lithium, cobalt, and other metals. Now, through the magic of chemistry, those critical elements are dissolving into solution. What you’ve just envisioned is urban mining in action. This isn’t science fiction, it’s happening now with Novasensa’s hydrometallurgical technology, which is redefining how we view waste and resource recovery in India.

Mining the Urban Mine – A New Paradigm

“Urban mining” refers to extracting valuable metals from urban waste streams (like e-waste and spent batteries) rather than from mined ores. The concept flips the traditional mining industry on its head: instead of excavating mountains in far-off lands, the “ore” is our stockpile of used electronics; instead of giant smelting furnaces belching smoke, the extraction happens in closed-loop chemical processes. Novasensa’s solution is a prime example of urban mining. In simple terms, we collect end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and electronic scraps, and we recover critical metals from them to make new raw materials for industry.

Think of a discarded smartphone or an old laptop battery – inside, there’s lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, gold, and more. Novasensa’s process takes these spent products and systematically pulls out each of those metals in pure form. It’s like harvesting a crop of minerals from a field of disposed gadgets. By doing so, we transform what was once considered “waste” into wealth and raw material for new manufacturing. This closes the loop: yesterday’s electronics become tomorrow’s batteries and devices.

What We Recover

Our hydrometallurgical process is comprehensive. From spent lithium-ion batteries, we extract lithium (which we precipitate as high-purity lithium carbonate), cobalt (as cobalt sulfate or cobalt metal), nickel (nickel salts), manganese (as oxides or salts), and copper (often recovered as pure copper metal via electrowinning). From printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronic scrap, we recover copper, of course, but also precious metals like gold, silver, palladium, as well as tin and lead from solder. Virtually nothing of value is left behind – even iron and aluminum that aren’t worth as much get captured as stable by-products so they don’t pollute. It’s important to note how different this is from informal recycling, where often only copper or gold might be salvaged and everything else is burned away. Novasensa’s approach aims to reclaim every element we can, safely and efficiently.

One vivid statistic that guides our philosophy: a tonne of discarded mobile phones has more gold than a tonne of gold ore. So when we process those phones, we are literally mining richer ore than what comes out of a goldmine – and we’re getting copper, rare metals, and more in the bargain. The urban mine is real, and we’re building the technology to tap it.

Hydrometallurgy – Green Chemistry in Action

The engine behind this urban mining is hydrometallurgy – essentially, using water-based chemistry to extract metals, as opposed to traditional pyrometallurgy (which uses high-temperature melting and smelting). Novasensa has developed a proprietary hydrometallurgical process tailored for e-waste and batteries. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:

• Pre-processing: Collected batteries and e-waste are first shredded and sorted. For batteries, this yields a powdery mixture called “black mass” which contains the valuable metals (and some impurities like carbon, plastics, etc.). For e-waste like PCBs, shredding produces metal-rich granules. We often remove things like steel casings or other bulk materials via mechanical separation at this stage.

  
  

• Leaching (Dissolution): The real magic begins when the material is subjected to chemical solutions (acids or other lixiviants). We soak the shredded waste in these solutions to dissolve the target metals into a liquid solution. Picture making a “metal soup” – ingredients include lithium, cobalt, nickel ions floating in the broth. This is done in controlled reactors at relatively low temperatures (often below 100°C). Unlike a smelter, there are no smokestacks here – no burning of plastic or release of toxic fumes. It’s a closed vessel where chemistry does the heavy lifting.

  
  

• Separation & Recovery: Once the metals are in solution, we employ a series of selective precipitation, solvent extraction, and electro-winning steps to pull out each metal one by one. For example, we might adjust the pH or add a precipitant to make lithium carbonate fall out of solution first (which we filter and collect), then later adjust conditions to precipitate cobalt as a sulfate, and so on. We can also use electricity to plate out pure copper from the solution in an electrowinning cell. The end result is that we obtain high-purity outputs of each metal – essentially equivalent to refined mined products.

  
  

• Refining and Products: The final outputs are refined compounds/metals ready for reuse. Lithium comes out as >99% pure lithium carbonate crystals (suitable for new battery cathodes). Cobalt and Nickel come out as sulfates or hydroxides that battery makers can directly use. Copper can be recovered as metallic copper sheets (which can go to make wires or circuit boards again). Gold and silver end up in a sludge that we refine in a separate circuit to yield pure bullion. At the end of the line, we have transformed waste into a suite of marketable commodities.

  
  

• Closed-Loop and Clean Operation: Importantly, this process is closed-loop and environmentally friendly. The chemicals we use for leaching are largely recovered and recycled within the process (for example, by regenerating acids). We treat any residual effluents to neutralize acids or precipitate out any toxins, ensuring that nothing harmful goes out into the environment. Because it’s all in tanks and pipes, there’s no air pollution; any fumes are scrubbed and there’s no combustion. This means such a facility can be located in or near a city without harming air quality – aligning with the concept of “urban refineries” where recycling plants sit close to the sources of e-waste (the cities). In fact, being in urban/industrial hubs is efficient, as it eases logistics for both input collection and output distribution (and provides local green jobs).

  
  

What makes hydrometallurgy especially appealing for India’s needs is that it’s far more sustainable than traditional extraction. Studies (and our own data) show that recycling battery materials via hydromet can cut greenhouse gas emissions by ~58–81% compared to mining and refining virgin material. Similarly, it uses 77–89% less energy and 72–88% less water than mining the same metals from ore. These are huge differences – think of all the fuel, electricity and water saved when you’re not having to dig, crush, and heat ore from scratch. Essentially, by using waste as our feedstock, we bypass the most energy-intensive steps of the supply chain. The process is also highly efficient in recovery: we can extract over 90% of the lithium, cobalt, nickel content from the input, whereas some older methods (and many informal practices) left a lot of metal behind. High recovery means more material back into use and less residue to dispose of.

Why Novasensa’s Tech Stands Out

Novasensa isn’t the only player eyeing the urban mine, but our technology brings together several key advantages that make it a potential game-changer for India:

• Innovative & Sustainable: From the ground up, our process was designed with sustainability in mind. We operate at near-ambient temperatures, avoid fossil fuel usage in extraction, and aim for a carbon-neutral footprint in the plant operation. This aligns with our core value of environmental guardianship. We’re proving that recycling can be scaled without leaving a carbon scar – ensuring that in trying to solve one problem (critical mineral supply), we’re not exacerbating another (carbon emissions).

• Maximized Recovery (99%+): We target ultra-high recovery rates – up to 99% of the metals present, with 99.9% purity in the output compounds. For example, if you give us 100 kg of battery black mass containing certain amounts of Li, Co, Ni, etc., we will return ~99 kg worth of those metals in refined form. This is vital for both economics and waste reduction. Every bit of metal recovered is material that can be sold (improving revenue) and is not left as hazardous waste (improving environmental outcomes). Virtually all the lithium in a battery, which some older processes couldn’t capture, we do capture – meaning very little value is thrown away.

• Economic Viability (Profitable Recycling): A common concern is that recycling might be too costly. But our approach is engineered to be cost-efficient and profitable. Because we avoid high-temperature furnaces and utilize chemical processes, our capital and operating costs are significantly lower than a traditional smelter facility. We can also build plants in modular units and scale up incrementally, which reduces risk and upfront investment. Moreover, by recovering multiple metals from each input stream, we create diverse revenue streams – lithium, cobalt, nickel, gold, copper all contribute value. This diversification and efficiency mean that recycling isn’t just a feel-good exercise; it makes business sense. In fact, a well-run battery recycling plant can have attractive profit margins, which is crucial for it to sustain and grow without constant subsidies.

• Environmentally Friendly & Safe: Our facility runs clean – no harmful emissions, no slag heaps. We treat chemicals and recycle water within the system. Any solid residues are generally inert or safely handled. Unlike a smelter, which might produce toxic slag that needs landfilling, our goal is that most inputs become outputs and minimal unusable waste remains. This means a smaller environmental footprint and the ability to coexist in populated areas. Workers operate in a controlled setting with proper safety equipment, in stark contrast to the unsafe conditions of informal e-waste yards.

• AI-Driven Optimization: As a forward-looking tech company, Novasensa leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to continuously refine our process. We have AI models that simulate how changing a parameter (say, the acid concentration or leach time) might affect the recovery efficiency or purity. This helps us quickly optimize recipes for different types of waste. It also means if tomorrow a new type of battery chemistry becomes prevalent (for example, say lithium-iron-phosphate or solid-state batteries), our AI tools assist in adapting our process to handle those. This built-in flexibility and continuous improvement mindset keeps us ahead of the curve.

• Highly Adaptable & Scalable: One practical advantage of our hydrometallurgical process is its flexibility. We can treat a wide range of inputs – from small smartphone batteries to large EV battery modules, as well as PCB scraps – sometimes in the same facility with parallel processing lines. This matters because real-world e-waste is a mixed bag. Our process flow is designed to be adaptable: we can tweak reagent mixes or add steps to handle different metal mixes. As we scale up, we envision a network of collection points feeding a centralized plant (more on that in Blog 3), which is a model that can be replicated in multiple regions. The modular nature of hydromet plants means scaling from a pilot to a “giga” recycling plant is a matter of adding more modules – akin to how battery gigafactories scale by adding more production lines. This adaptability ensures that as the volume and variety of e-waste grows, our solution can grow right alongside it.

In summary, Novasensa’s hydrometallurgical urban mining approach is turning the e-waste problem into a solution. By extracting a rich array of metals from discarded electronics and batteries, we create a circular supply chain: metals loop back from used products into new products. This yields economic gains (metals sales, import savings), environmental gains (less pollution and mining), and strategic gains (domestic resource security). It’s a virtuous cycle where innovation meets impact – exactly bridging that gap between invention and impact, which is central to our mission.

A Day in the Life of a Battery (Story)

To illustrate, let’s follow a hypothetical example: You have an old smartphone that finally died. You drop it off at an e-waste collection drive. Through the channels we’re setting up, that phone makes its way to a Novasensa dismantling center, where the battery is removed and sent to our plant. At the recycling plant, that battery’s materials are dissolved and separated. A few weeks later, the lithium recovered from your phone’s battery is now in a batch of lithium carbonate powder shipped to a battery manufacturer. Six months down the line, that lithium is inside a brand new EV battery rolling out of a factory. Perhaps a year later, someone is driving an electric scooter powered by that very battery – effectively powered by lithium that came from your old phone! This is the circular economy in action – the life of materials doesn’t end with one product; they keep cycling through uses, benefiting society over and over.

By embracing urban mining, India can ensure that the gadgets of today become the mines of tomorrow. Instead of lamenting our lack of mineral reserves, we can recognize the immense “above-ground reserves” we have built inadvertently through decades of consumption. Novasensa’s technology provides the means to tap those reserves efficiently and cleanly.

In our next blog, we’ll look at the bigger picture and vision: how scaling up this technology could lead to India’s first Giga Recycling Facility, how it aligns with national initiatives, and what an India with a thriving recycling ecosystem might look like in 2030. We’ll discuss how this supports the country’s quest for self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat) and positions India as a global leader in sustainable industry. Stay tuned, because the story only gets more exciting from here – it’s not just about one company or one technology, but about building a nationwide circular economy movement.