SiTration Opens Facility to Scale Technology for Critical Minerals Recovery

WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 17, 2025--

SiTration, a materials recovery company serving the mining and metals industries, on Thursday, April 10 th, celebrated the opening of its new R&D and pilot facility attended by state, and local officials; investors; and partners. The company plans to develop and scale its pilot systems for critical minerals recovery in the 11,000-square-foot facility in Watertown, MA. The company’s technology enables low cost, sustainable recovery of metals including copper, cobalt, and nickel which are key to the clean energy transition. SiTration’s technical approach enables profitable extraction even from waste streams, unlocking new resources and bolstering domestic sources of critical minerals. This new facility will support production of pilot systems, expansion of R&D efforts, and recent headcount growth.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250417903605/en/

In recognition of SiTration’s commencement of operations, the event featured remarks from notable leaders including State Representative Steve Owens and Undersecretary of Economic Foundations Ashley Stolba. Co-founder and CEO Dr. Brendan Smith cut a ceremonial ribbon to mark the occasion. Attendees were later guided on a tour of the new facility.

"This new space marks an inflection point for SiTration,” said Dr. Smith “enabling us to expand our world-class team and build pilot systems larger and faster than previously possible. These systems will be deployed with mining partners around the world to demonstrate our uniquely profitable and sustainable critical minerals extraction capabilities, advancing us towards the commercial scale."

Founded as a spinoff from research conducted at MIT, SiTration is working to address the demand for critical materials needed to manufacture technologies that are key to electrification and AI adoption, including electric motors, batteries, and data centers. SiTration’s patented silicon filtration and electro-extraction technologies provide chemical-free, energy-efficient extraction and recycling. The company’s innovative solution lowers both the cost and the resource intensity of extracting and recycling materials, while also addressing localized pollution from mining operations. The company’s work has attracted the attention of industry, most notably through a partnership with Rio Tinto to valorize and remediate mining waste streams.

"We invested in SiTration because the energy transition is a materials transition -- the copper, lithium, rare earths, and other elements that SiTration can recover will increasingly power every sector of the global economy," said Matthew Nordan, General Partner at Azolla Ventures. "The company is a case study in how Massachusetts' innovation ecosystem brings powerful ideas to life. Private investors like us, state agencies like the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, accelerator programs like Activate, and innumerable individual advisors and supporters all played a role in bringing a core innovation from the lab into the field."

To date, SiTration has raised $14.4 million in venture capital funding. The most recent Seed financing round was led by 2150 with participation from BHP Ventures, Extantia, and Orion Industrial Ventures. Previous investors Azolla Ventures and MIT-affiliated E14 Fund also participated in the oversubscribed round.

About SiTration
SiTration is a spin-out of MIT enabling full value mining by efficiently recovering critical minerals from even the most dilute and complex streams. The company's core technology combines uniquely durable silicon filtration and electro-extraction stages to enable profitable and sustainable recovery of critical minerals including copper, cobalt, nickel, and precious metals. SiTration’s technology can replace traditional resource-intensive mining processes and can be deployed to recover materials from traditionally inaccessible sources, including waste. SiTration is quickly scaling up its validated technology, while working with global mining leaders to deploy pilot systems.

Brendan Smith and Undersecretary Ashley Stolba on a tour of SiTration's new pilot facility. Photo: Mark Wilson Images/for SiTration

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court Justice on Thursday ordered the transfer of former President Jair Bolsonaro from the federal police headquarters in Brasilia to a much bigger cell with an outside area in the Papuda Penitentiary Complex, also in the capital.

The transfer was described as a move to a facility with “more favorable conditions” for high-profile detainees.

Since November, Bolsonaro has been carrying out a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat. His lawyers have been pushing for a transfer to house arrest on medical grounds.

Michelle Bolsonaro, his wife, and his sons have regularly said that Bolsonaro is being mistreated and not getting adequate medical attention.

In the court decision, Justice Alexandre de Moraes denied the accusations. “Regrettably and falsely, there has been a systematic attempt to delegitimize the regular and lawful execution of the custodial sentence of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, which has been carried out with full respect for human dignity."

Bolsonaro had been in a 12-square-meter room with a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a TV set and a desk, and Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's transfer to an even more comfortable situation. He determined that Bolsonaro be transferred to a 54-square-meter room with a 10-square-meter outside area that he can access at will.

Following the transfer, Bolsonaro will also have increased time for family visits and physiotherapy equipment such as a treadmill and bicycle will be installed. The new area resembles an apartment, with a double bed, a kitchen, a laundry, a living room and an outdoor area.

The Supreme Court’s press office said the transfer had already happened.

Since starting his sentence, Bolsonaro has made several trips to a nearby hospital, most recently after falling out of bed and hitting his head.

Moraes decided that Bolsonaro can have “full assistance, 24 (twenty-four) hours a day, from previously registered private doctors, without the need for prior notification.”

Moraes also ordered a medical examination to assess Bolsonaro's health and determine whether he needs to be transferred to a penitentiary hospital.

Bolsonaro has been hospitalized multiple times since being stabbed at a campaign event before the 2018 presidential election.

The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election defeat.

The plot included plans to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice de Moraes. The plan also involved encouraging an insurrection in early 2023.

The former president was also found guilty of charges including leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

Bolsonaro has always denied wrongdoing.

In Thursday’s court order, Moraes said that Bolsonaro was convicted of extremely serious crimes and that his custodial sentence was not a “hotel stay or a vacation colony” as statements from Bolsonaro’s sons’ cited in the decision “mistakenly seem to demand.”

FILE - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro stands at the entrance of his home while he is under house arrest in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova, File)