Former BHP head of innovation Grant Caffery will become CEO of Australian Securities Exchange-listed Iondrive at the start of August. Caffery, who spent more than eight years at BHP, says the microcap is “one of the most compelling opportunities I have seen in the critical minerals sector”.
Describing Iondrive’s proprietary IONSolv metal extraction technology as “independently verified” on the back of recent US testwork, he said the company had a defined US deployment pathway amid surging global demand for ex-China rare earths.
Iondrive reported last month independent IONSolv testing by Canada’s Kingston Process Metallurgy on e-waste from US-based Colt Recycling achieved 93.5% recovery of dysprosium, which “substantially exceeds the 32.5% dysprosium recovery assumption used in the company’s previously announced TEA [November 2025 techno-economic analysis]”.
Iondrive said this week significant commercial progress made over six months had positioned it among a select group of companies globally advancing towards first commercial production in rare earth recycling and critical minerals processing.
“During this period Iondrive advanced its commercial position through a rapidly expanding pipeline of feedstock supply, product offtake and strategic partnership opportunities across North America, Europe and Australia,” the company said.
“The company also secured a ietter of Intent with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce providing a pathway to funding support with a target aggregate value of up to US$15 million, while independently verifying the recoveries of neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium using its IONSolv platform.
“It has also confirmed wet commissioning of its pilot plant remains targeted for the fourth quarter of the 2026 calendar year following design enhancements to broaden processing flexibility and manage development costs.”
Iondrive has a current market capitalisation of circa-A$35 million. It was known as Southern Gold until 2023 when it acquired the rights to technologies developed by University of Adelaide researchers Shizhang Qiao and Zaiping Guo for $1.2 million. The technologies included what was described as a low cost, environmentally friendly, highly selective deep eutectic solvent “which has the potential to change the way lithium-ion batteries are recycled worldwide”.
In a 2023 interview with InvestMETS.com when he joined US consultancy Clareo as a director, Caffery said declining mining industry discovery and new project delivery rates, plus higher-cost and less efficient existing operations, made “new concepts of operations and business models to support long-term innovation” imperative.
Caffery said Iondrive had an opportunity to become “a globally significant participant in the rare earth circular economy”.
“The foundations are firmly in place and the opportunity now is to execute at scale,” he said.
