Fieldstone Bio, a synthetic biology company building critical-mineral biosensors, announced its selection for the Mining Tech Accelerator program run by Founders Factory in partnership with Rio Tinto, joining a cohort of five companies chosen for the four-month program. The accelerator provides investment and operational support, with participants working directly with Rio Tinto's technical experts and business leaders and drawing on the miner's advanced facilities in Western Australia to adapt their technologies to operational mining environments. Fieldstone's platform combines synthetic biology, hyperspectral imaging, and data analysis to detect target elements in geological samples and convert results into high spatial resolution measurements that teams can act on while a drill program is still underway. The selection deepens Fieldstone's mining momentum after the U.S. Department of Energy awarded $2 million in June to Fieldstone, TerraCore, and MIT to develop a rapid, non-destructive system for characterizing critical minerals on drill cores through ARPA-E's ROCKS program. CEO and co-founder Patrick Stone said the program puts the platform in the hands of the people making drilling decisions every day, while Founders Factory Sector Director for Mining and Nature Tech Tamryn Barker said Fieldstone's approach brings an entirely new measurement capability to exploration.
Rio Tinto PLCRio Tinto partners with Founders Factory to run the Mining Tech Accelerator and gives Fieldstone access to its technical experts and Western Australia facilities to adapt mineral-detection tech to its operations.
Fieldstone Bio was selected for the Mining Tech Accelerator, gaining investment, operational support, and Rio Tinto facilities to adapt its critical-mineral biosensor platform.
Founders Factory runs the Mining Tech Accelerator in partnership with Rio Tinto and selected Fieldstone among five cohort companies.
