Much of the UK’s hazardous waste, containing vital critical metals for the UK economy, is currently shipped overseas for treatment and processing. Seloxium has developed a UK-based solution that enables the recovery of platinum group metals, gold and rare earth elements at source directly from this hazardous waste within the UK.

Seloxium’s patented technology, known as Selectal™, enables the selective recovery of critical metals, including rare earth elements from dilute industrial streams. Through the Innovate UK CLIMATES Programme, supporting both a technical feasibility study and a subsequent Investor Partnership Grant, Seloxium is now scaling its innovation from laboratory to pilot deployment.

From lab to pilot scale

Following a £364k precursor feasibility study, Seloxium secured a £2 million Innovate UK Investor Partnership project and a £900k grant, funded by CLIMATES, to accelerate the development of a containerised, modular pilot scale system. This programme sits alongside a £5.1million investment

Innovate UK has supported us through our entire journey. This project has helped us take something proven in the lab and scale it into a real system. We have demonstrated that the technology works at lab & pilot scale and now we are proving it for a mobile system. Having a modular containerised solution that can treat waste at source without being shipped is a gamechanger and will allow for the profitable extraction of critical metals at source. The CLIMATES investment allowed us to make that leap.

Christian Peters, CEO & Co-founder, Seloxium

The pilot project focuses on building a transportable engineering system that uses selective flocculation to extract rare earth elements directly from complex industrial streams. By enabling treatment at customer sites, Seloxium’s system reduces emissions, costs and environmental risk associated with global waste transport.

New Market Opportunity

By proving that Selectal™ can be applied to rare earth elements, an area characterised by conservative and highly monopolised supply chains, Seloxium has unlocked a major new domestic opportunity. Innovate UK’s support has significantly de‑risked this expansion and aligned the company’s work with the UK’s industrial strategy.
The project aims to complete in March 2026, with commissioning shortly after. Once operational, the system will allow Seloxium to process alternative feedstocks such as ionic clays, volcanic tuffs and mine waste, opening new UK‑based routes into critical materials supply chains.

Aligned with CLIMATES ambitions

Seloxium’s innovation directly supports the CLIMATES Programme’s objectives to:

• strengthen UK supply chain resilience;
• enable circular use of critical materials; and
• accelerate lab-to-market innovation.

This project allows us to prove the technology at scale, build customer interest in the system, and ultimately deploy these containerised systems directly on mining or waste sites.

Christian Peters, CEO & Co-founder, Seloxium

What’s next?

With the pilot system nearing completion, Seloxium’s next phase is deployment at customer sites, demonstrating performance under real‑world conditions and paving the way for commercial roll‑out. With continued Innovate UK support, Seloxium is positioned to reshape how the UK recovers and secures critical rare earth materials.

Find out how the CLIMATES programme can support you in your innovation journey.