Need

Wazoku, the Seeker for this Innocentive Scouting Challenge, on behalf of Aberdeen Minerals, is seeking novel processing methods to extract and refine nickel, copper and cobalt products from sulfide mineral concentrates.

We invite innovators who already have, or have the potential to develop, a novel mineral processing technology for use with sulfide mineral concentrates derived from North East Scotland.

The target is to produce saleable intermediate products suitable for further refining and production of critical raw materials, or industry-ready products for UK Industry e.g. for the lithium-ion battery sector, in a way that is more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable than shipping products to overseas smelters.

Collab Opp

This is a Scouting Challenge seeking a partner or supplier to provide solutions to solve the Aberdeen Minerals business challenge; the Solver is invited to submit a written proposal to be evaluated first by Wazoku and then finalists by Aberdeen Minerals with the goal of establishing a collaborative partnership.

The Challenge timeframe is short, you will already have, or have the potential to develop, a credible solution in order to participate.

Your proposal must clearly identify your credibility and directly relevant know-how to be able to collaborate in partnership with Wazoku. Your stated validation of this potential is key. Your experience will likely be aligned to sulfide mineral processing and hydrometallurgy.

Solvers who already have, or have the potential to develop, a viable solution will be supported by Wazoku:

• With the potential to pitch directly to Aberdeen Minerals
• To be selected to be trialed at bench scale by Aberdeen Minerals with the possibility of further development through pilot scale trials
• With opportunities then for collaborative funding to develop the technology and an overall processing flowsheet for the project, and potential for Aberdeen Minerals to acquire or license the technology
• For possible further commercialisation of a solution across other UK / European / global nickel sulfide projects.

In return, Wazoku will retain a share of up to 75% of any financial benefits you are paid for any collaboration resulting from this challenge, to support UK setup, partnering and deployment.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on May 27th, 2026.

Please review the later Participation Guidance section before submitting a proposal.

- Login or register your interest to solve!

Seeker/Eligibility

Wazoku is an innovation ecosystem platform encompassing AI, market intelligence, venture building, patent analysis and open talent networks. It centralises data, talent, and tools to make innovation measurable, impactful and able to solve pressing challenges.

Wazoku also operate Innocentive open innovation Challenges like this one, supporting the preeminent problem solver community who have delivered breakthrough results for organisations like NASA, the International Rescue Committee, and ExxonMobil.

Aberdeen Minerals is a private company investing in geological exploration for nickel, copper and cobalt sulfide mineral deposits in North East Scotland. Nickel and cobalt are classified by the UK Government as “critical minerals” and copper is a “growth mineral”. Drilling and geophysical investigations are ongoing at the Arthrath Project in Aberdeenshire, intended to identify and delineate subsurface zones with sufficiently high levels of metal concentration to support a long-term mine development.

This challenge is open to individual entrepreneurs, academic institutions, start-ups or SMEs.

Challenge

Background

Nickel, copper and cobalt at Arthrath occur in sulfide mineral deposits comprising primarily of the minerals pyrrhotite, pentlandite (nickel-cobalt host) and chalcopyrite (copper host). The conventional processing route for this deposit type is to produce a sulfide mineral concentrate at the mine site, which is sold onward to a smelter for further processing. As there are no smelters in the UK, future concentrate production would need to be shipped overseas meaning that these nickel, copper and cobalt critical raw materials would be lost from UK domestic supply chains.

Further drawbacks with processing via a smelter include: recovery losses to achieve smelter quality concentrates; economic losses through payability rates and penalty elements; loss of cobalt during smelting; transport costs; environmental impacts.

Significant amounts of nickel, copper and cobalt at lower concentration levels have already been delineated at Arthrath within zones that may eventually be considered un- or sub-economic using conventional processing methods.

Improving the overall economics of a mineral development at Arthrath will accelerate the project’s development, bring forward the creation of skilled jobs and enhance the project’s investability and financial performance.

The Challenge

To identify mineral processing methods to extract and refine nickel, copper and cobalt products from sulfide mineral concentrates from North East Scotland.

To develop an alternative processing route to recover and refine the critical raw materials domestically, enabling direct supply to UK industry, reducing reliance on overseas production and mitigating the environmental and social impacts of raw material supply chains.

The solution will enable recovery of metals from low-grade ores in a way that is more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable than conventional smelting and refining, and should produce saleable intermediate products suitable for further refining within the UK or directly refine industry-ready products such as nickel and cobalt sulphate salts for the lithium-ion battery sector.

Solution Requirements

You will already have, or have the potential to develop, a credible solution in order to participate.

Your proposal must clearly identify your credibility and directly relevant know-how to be able to collaborate in partnership with Wazoku. Your stated validation of this potential is key.

Functional Requirements

The solution must:

• Recover nickel, cobalt and copper products (intermediates or final products) from a bulk sulfide concentrate derived from low grade ore comprising of pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, pyrite with silicate / oxide gangue minerals
• Use readily available lixiviants and reagents and operate with high recyclability of water or other reagents to minimise cost and environmental impact
• Be TRL 4+ and ready for laboratory scale validation
• Be capable of scale-up to process in the order of 100,000 tonnes of sulfide mineral concentrates per year, within 4 to 6 years. The operational life is envisaged to be a minimum of 10 years
• Be suitable for implementation at the project site in Aberdeenshire or an alternative industrial site in Scotland.

Technical Requirements

The solution must:

• Deliver selective recovery of nickel, copper and cobalt from a bulk sulfide concentrate, while minimising contaminants / penalty elements in high purity output products either directly acceptable to industry end users (eg battery manufacturers) or suitable for further UK refining
• Be capable of treating a “rougher” sulfide concentrate grading 1.5% nickel, 1.5% copper, 0.11% cobalt, 15% sulphur.
• Achieve minimum targeted metal recoveries from concentrate into output products:
  • • • • 85% nickel
        • 70% cobalt
        • 85% copper
• Deliver one or more of the following targeted output products:
  • nickel sulphate hexahydrate
  • cobalt sulphate heptahydrate (both for the battery market)
  • cathode copper (high purity copper for the wire market)
  • Or alternative intermediate products capable of being processed within UK supply chains

Operating Conditions

The solution must:

• Have a low energy requirement, ensuring low-cost processing and reduced climate change impact compared to current overseas supply chains for these raw materials
• Operate with high recyclability of water and reagents to minimise cost and environmental impact and provide a solution for waste treatment and disposal
• Be implementable in compliance with Scottish and UK regulations

Out of Scope

Avoid any materials or processes harmful to the environment or with negative impacts on local communities.

Proposals will be assessed on:

• Relevance to the defined challenge
• Credibility of the applicant
• Technical feasibility and scalability
• Economic viability
• Environmental merits
• Innovative nature
• Development potential
• Maturity of the solution

Your Submission

Please log in and register your interest, to complete the submission form and add attachments.

The submitted proposals must be written in English and include:

1. Participation type – you will first be asked to inform us how you are participating in this challenge, as a Solver (Individual) or Solver (Organization).
2. Idea Summary - Please identify your technology and its advantages for the potential solution to the challenge (Keep this summary under 300 words. Below, you can also upload up to 3 supporting documents - PDF, Word, PowerPoint and images (jpg and png), Max 10MB per file).
3. Technology Readiness - Please select which TRL (Technology Readiness Level) your technology is currently at.
4. Describe your technology readiness level (Keep the description under 300 words).
5. Intellectual Property - Describe your intellectual property (IP) status. Have you, or do you intend to, protect IP status associated with your technology? Please identify the IP status for any supporting technology. (Keep the description under 300 words).
6. Expertise and Use Cases - Expertise, skills and real-world use cases you or your organization have, to support the implementation of your proposed solution; pre-selection evidence will be required (up to 300 words).
7. Use of AI - Please state the approximate percentage of your submission produced using AI tools, and then your specific non-AI subject matter expertise in relation to this challenge (up to 150 words).

Participation Guidance

1. Submission Close Date: Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on May 27th, 2026.
2. Late submissions: Late submissions will not be considered.
3. Multiple submissions, One Maximum: In case of multiple submissions by the same Solver, only one submission – the final one submitted – will be considered. Any other submissions will be deleted prior to evaluation.
4. Submission form and attachments: Your submission will first be evaluated by Wazoku and finalists by the Aberdeen Minerals evaluation team, first reviewing the information and content you have submitted at the submission form, with attachments used as additional context to your form submission. Submissions relying solely on attachments will receive less attention.
5. Evaluation notification steps: After the Challenge submission close date, Wazoku will review and select the solutions it will propose and position with Aberdeen Minerals, according to the timeline in the Challenge header. Everyone who submits a proposal will be notified about the status of their submissions.
6. Use of AI: Please note that any submissions produced solely with generative AI are not of interest.
7. Learn more: Find out more about participation in Innocentive Challenges.