Winners and Losers: SA ‘urban mining’ tech reaches milestone
Shares in a South Australian company trying to make e-waste recycling technology commercially viable spiked last week after the business reached a major milestone.
Kent Town-based Iondrive was one of the standout performers of the ASX-listed South Australian companies last week, rising after reaching a new milestone in the commercialisation of its emerging technology.
The business last week announced that testing of its technology in the United States “continues to demonstrate strong rare earth extraction”.
Iondrive is working on making an ‘urban mining platform’ called IONSolv, which can extract high-value metals from e-waste, batteries, solar panels and mining tailings.
Last Thursday, Iondrive CEO Lewis Utting said the results from testing in the United States “demonstrate that IONSolv is delivering consistent high extraction while progressing toward a process that can be deployed at scale”.
“We are achieving a strong extraction of key rare earth elements and continue to refine the process,” Utting said.
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“Our focus is now on producing a saleable rare earth product and advancing the process toward commercial deployment.
“The latest results support the company’s transition from technology validation toward a modular, scalable extraction platform.”
Shares in the company surged ahead of the announcement, and continued to rise over Thursday and Friday before closing up 30 per cent for the week.
H3 Energy – a hydrogen and helium exploration company – was the week’s biggest Winner, rising 33.33 per cent over the week despite not making any announcements.
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Generally, markets rallied despite limited progress on oil shipments and a tenuous ceasefire in the Middle East.
Global tech stocks broadly led that rally, while gold and lithium miners grew for a fourth straight week.
And while it did not appear in the Losers list, SA’s largest company – Santos – saw its shares fall by 5.79 per cent.
The company hosted its annual general meeting on Thursday, at which its CEO called for policymakers to support major Australian oil and gas projects.
“Amidst global instability, Australia must focus on what we can control – policy, approval and fiscal certainty to underpin investor confidence to commit capital,” CEO Kevin Gallagher said at the AGM.
“Without this, capital will go where it feels most welcome and safe – markets like the US and Canada that are turbo-charging their share of the LNG export market.”
The full list of Winners and Losers for the week ending April 17, 2026:
Data via Baker Young Limited analysts.
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