Meet the Australian startup taking on China’s grip on critical minerals
Sydney startup Gega Elements wants to challenge China’s dominance in gallium and germanium refining, aiming to secure Australia’s foothold in critical minerals.
Gega Elements started like many startups claim to — in a garage — but with a significant twist. Rather than a low-rent coding dungeon, it was a makeshift metallurgy lab where founder Mo Assefi ran mineral processing experiments on gallium, germanium, indium and rhenium.
Its humble beginnings belie a serious opportunity for Australia to break China’s stranglehold on critical minerals that power everything from semiconductors to military defence systems.
Gega has just closed a $925,000 pre-seed round backed by UNSW Founders, Flying Fox Ventures, Investible, Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) and Salus Ventures.
The company has also received a $50,000 grant from the UNSW Founders Program Defence Cohort and funding from S3B, an Australian non-profit organisation that supports and grows the country’s semiconductor industry.
