Founded in 2020 and spun out of Deep Science Ventures, Thunderstone is developing excavation-less in-situ leaching technology that extracts metals directly from underground ore deposits. The system uses high-voltage electrical pulses to create fractures in rock, opening pathways for conductive fluids to dissolve and recover metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium — without the drilling, blasting and hauling of conventional mining.
Led by founder and CEO Eric Wasson-Burns, the San Francisco-based company aims to make critical-metal extraction cleaner, faster and more scalable by cutting the surface disruption, emissions and waste associated with traditional mines. Thunderstone joined the Founders Factory and Rio Tinto Mining Tech Accelerator to help develop and prove out its underground extraction technology.
