An Adelaide startup developing magnetic technology to process steel-grade iron concentrate and recovercritical minerals without using water is looking to raise additional funding following a $10 million Seed round in December last year.
DryFlow Magnetics, founded in 2024, has reopened its Seed raise, which was backed by Orion Industrial Ventures, Virescent Ventures and Taronga Ventures, on the same terms to fund the fabrication of its processing plants for the mining industry. CSIRO and the South Australian government’s Seed-Start program have also delivered grant funding.
The startup says it has commercial interest from the USA, recently signing its first customer there, and several research programs underway with some of the world’s leading miners. It’s about to install its first commercial pilot plant in South Australian mine site in a partnership with Peak Iron Mines at its Buzzard Mine and Hawks Nest iron ore project.
DryFlow’s waterless process allows miners to extract high purity iron concentrate and critical minerals from water-stranded assets.
Conventional wet processing methods are both water and energy intensive, hampering processing Australia’s arid and remote iron ore regions. The opportunity to upgrade exported iron ores to higher grade for green iron is expected to worth $386 billion a year by 2060 – 3x three times the value of the industry today.
Greener steel
DryFlow CEO Brett Boynton said the green steel industry needs high purity iron ore concentrate, which Australia currently doesn’t produce.
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“Our competitors in Brazil, Canada and Europe are all using wet processing technologies to produce high purity iron ore concentrates. That isn’t an option in Australia, but DryFlow’s technology changes the future for the industry,” he said.
“We can unlock billions of tonnes of stranded mineral resources and produce the exacting high grade iron ore concentrate steelmakers are switching to. By removing the need for process water we also do it more efficiently, cost effectively and sustainably.”
Orion managing partner Mark Frayman said DryFlow’s technology has the potential to solve a major global processing bottleneck, and monetise currently stranded assets and waste streams at a fraction of the capital and operating cost of existing processes.
Iron and steel production accounts for up to 9% of global emissions, which why Blair Pritchard from Virescent, Australia’s largest dedicated climate tech venture fund, backed DryFlow.
“Steel is one of the world’s largest industrial emissions sectors, and decarbonising it represents one of the biggest commercial opportunities of the next decade,” he said.
“A critical piece of that puzzle is efficiently and sustainably securing high-grade iron ore concentrate. DryFlow solves that problem while also ensuring Australian iron ore exported now can meet the high standards of our major export partners, helping to secure the future of our largest export industry.”
