Excir, a USask startup extracting precious metals from e-waste
Excir, Inc., is a clean-tech company that specializes in extracting precious metals from electronic waste. The company has ambitions to become a leader in sustainable precious metals recovery. USask chemistry professor Stephen Foley, two former students, and a business partner founded Excir in 2017.
The company and team were supported by USask’s commercialization office on their road to commercialization including pitches on Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank in the U.S.
The British Royal Mint selected Excir’s patented technology in 2021 and made a strategic equity investment. In 2023, the Government of Canada invested $2.5 million to construct a pilot plant in Canada. In 2024, the Royal Mint opened a state-of-theart manufacturing facility in south Wales using Excir’s first-inthe- world technology to extract gold from e-waste.