Launched500: What we learned from profiling 500 mining technology companies
Two years of weekly profiles. When we started Launched, the idea was simple: feature 5 mining technology companies every week
Read articleFor the past two years, Unearthed’s Launched feature has put emerging innovators on the radar of the mining and resources sector.
Delivered as a lightweight weekly list, Launched highlights the capability, location and potential industry relevance of startups developing new technologies, products and solutions around the world.
As Launched passes its 100 week milestone, the feature has now showcased more than 500 emerging startups, scaleups and disruptive innovations.
To mark the occasion, we have reconnected with several companies featured during its earliest weeks. This series explores how their technologies, teams and market opportunities have evolved over the past two years, and what they have learned while working to turn emerging capabilities into embedded heavy industry solutions.
DISA Technologies
Located: Wyoming, USA, with a satellite office in Colorado.
Founding team:
- Greyson Buckingham: Co-Founder, CEO and President
- John Lee: Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Funding raised since July 2024:
US$63 million in disclosed private financing, including:
Current deployments:
DISA has advanced HPSA from pilot-scale validation into commercial mineral processing, with 50 tph and 100 tph units in operation, a 125 tph unit under construction in Australia and the design completed for a 250 tph system.
Pilot-scale systems have also been delivered, with projects progressing across Europe, Africa, Latin America and Australia.
Why DISA first caught our attention
DISA Technologies first came onto Unearthed’s radar through an innovation challenge delivered with OZ Minerals.
Its High-Pressure Slurry Ablation approach immediately stood out, using opposing high-pressure slurry streams to create particle to particle collisions and liberate valuable minerals from gangue.
It was a genuinely different approach within comminution, an energy intensive and difficult part of the mining value chain to disrupt.
When DISA was featured on Launched in July 2024, its technology had progressed through laboratory programs, pilot trials and smaller demonstration units.
Two years later, the company has moved decisively into commercial-scale deployment, attracted major strategic investors and expanded its applications beyond active mineral processing into the recovery and remediation of legacy uranium mine waste.
Two years on: catching up with DISA
We caught up with the DISA team to learn more about its journey over the past two years, the changes it is seeing across the mining market and what comes next for the business.
What are the biggest milestones you've achieved over the past two years?
Over the past two years, DISA has advanced High-Pressure Slurry Ablation from pilot-scale validation into commercial-scale mineral processing deployment, including 50 tph and 100 tph HPSA units in operation, a 125 tph unit currently being built in Australia, and completion of the design for our 250 tph unit. We have also expanded our global footprint, with pilot scale systems delivered and projects progressing across Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Australia. Together, these milestones represent an important transition for the business - from proving the technology to scaling it into repeatable, industrial mineral processing applications.
What have you observed changing in the market over that period?
One of the biggest shifts we have observed is a renewed focus on optimizing existing operations. New mines are difficult to permit, expensive to build, and take many years to bring online. At the same time, many operators are dealing with declining ore grades and increasingly complex deposits, where material that cannot be processed via conventional circuits can result in higher waste volumes, lower recoveries, and increased mining and processing costs. As a result, operators are looking harder at ways to increase recovery, improve throughput, reduce energy, and extract more value from assets they already have.
We are also seeing sustainability become more practical and commercially focused. The conversation has moved beyond broad ESG goals toward technologies that can deliver measurable economic and environmental benefits at operating sites. That includes growing interest in legacy waste, tailings, and brownfield opportunities where existing liabilities may become future resources.
Market acceptance for new technology has also improved. Mining companies are still cautious, and project development timelines remain long, but more operators are willing to engage, review data, and complete initial due diligence. They are not shutting the door as quickly as they may have in the past.
What does the next two years look like for your business?
The next two years are about capitalizing on these market shifts and using brownfield momentum to move from market awareness to broader market acceptance. Our focus is to expand commercial installations, scale HPSA from pilot units through 250 tph commercial systems and continue development toward 500 tph units and larger future platforms. As we scale, we expect HPSA to be evaluated not only as a retrofit solution for existing circuits, but also as a core flowsheet option for future greenfield projects.
Commercially, our priority is to demonstrate repeatable value across recovery improvement, throughput gains, selective liberation, legacy waste processing, and flowsheet configurations where HPSA can simplify, supplement, or in some cases displace conventional milling duties. We believe the market potential is significant because HPSA can address both economic and environmental drivers. Longer term, our goal is to position DISA not just as an equipment supplier, but as a technology and solutions partner helping mining companies rethink how mineral processing circuits can be designed, upgraded, and operated.
Connecting mining with emerging innovation
Unearthed Solutions works at the intersection of industry need and emerging innovation, helping mining and resources companies look beyond familiar suppliers and technology stacks to identify new approaches to complex operational challenges.
Through features like Launched, and open innovation programs, we help promising innovators gain industry visibility while supporting mining organisations to discover capabilities with the potential to create meaningful operational impact.
Sign up to Launched to receive emerging mining and resources innovations in your inbox each week.
Building a technology for the resources sector, or looking for new solutions to an industry challenge?
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