Flash Metals, the company’s US subsidiary, also was awarded a $100,000 contract with the US Department of Defense. | Petr Bonek/Shutterstock
After announcing its first US facility in Houston, Texas, Metallium has now secured two additional sites in Massachusetts and Virginia for future electronics recovery plants, and received a $100,000 contract with the US Department of Defense.
Following its rebrand from MTM Critical Metals earlier this year, Metallium said it has lease options on both properties, which already carry environmental permits for electronics processing.
The company plans to install its flash joule heating technology, developed at Rice University to recover critical and precious metals from e-scrap using high-voltage electrical pulses.
While specifics were not available, the company noted the Massachusetts property is located near established scrap aggregation hubs, while the Virginia site sits close to Northern Virginia’s dense data center corridor. Metallium said the permits already in place should help shorten the path to development.
“Securing these additional US sites ensures we can roll out Flash Joule Heating at pace, and in regions that matter strategically,” CEO Lachlan Burd said.
The company did not disclose addresses or ownership details. Executives added that construction will depend on financing and build schedules, though the permits were described as giving the projects a head start.
The Massachusetts and Virginia announcements follow last month’s news of the Houston facility, scheduled to begin operations in early 2026. That site is expected to be the company’s first commercial-scale demonstration of flash joule heating.
Like Houston, the two new projects would source feedstock from regional e-scrap recyclers, data centers and industrial suppliers. Metallium has not released cost estimates or capacity targets for any of the sites.
In the works
Flash joule heating works by sending an electrical pulse through ground-up e-scrap, spiking the temperature to more than 3,000 degrees Celsius in milliseconds. Metals vaporize under the heat and are collected through filtration.
Supporters of the method say it requires less energy and produces fewer emissions than smelting or acid-based recovery. Metallium describes the system as modular, meaning it can be scaled to different facility sizes depending on feedstock availability.
The company holds an exclusive license for commercial use of the technology from Rice University.
This week the US Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency awarded a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to Metallium’s US subsidiary, Flash Metals USA.
Flash Metals will act as prime contractor with Rice University’s Tour Group engaged under a resource and cost-sharing arrangement to recover gallium from waste streams, including LED scrap and gallium-rich waste streams.
Following completion of Phase I, the company plans to “apply immediately for Phase II funding of up to $1 million to advance pilot-scale deployment at Metallium’s existing Chambers County site in Texas, with a goal of commencing a Phase III commercial implementation to reinforce US supply chain resilience for gallium and other critical metals.”
Why the sites matter
Federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, have highlighted e-scrap as a potential domestic source of rare earths, cobalt, lithium and other inputs used in batteries and electronics. Metallium has presented its US projects as part of that push to strengthen domestic supply chains.
The Virginia site is seen as especially strategic because of its proximity to one of the world’s largest clusters of hyperscale data centers. Metallium said being nearby could provide access to servers and high-grade circuit boards as equipment is retired.
Feasibility studies and site assessments in Massachusetts and Virginia will take place over the coming months. No commissioning dates have been set.
“These options mark another step toward building a US platform for recovering metals from discarded electronics,” Burd said.
If the projects advance, Metallium would be among the first foreign-based companies to operate multiple permitted e-scrap recovery facilities in the United States using a newly commercialized recovery technology.