LONGVIEW, Texas — During an often tense discussion Tuesday about a proposed facility in Longview that would extract precious metals from computer circuit boards, one woman asked Will Barker to repeat a statement he made about his company.
Barker, who has a PhD in chemistry, is the founder and CEO of Mint Innovation in Auckland, New Zealand. Mint Innovation is the previously unnamed company that is seeking a specific use permit from the city of Longview to locate at 2120 E. Loop 281.
That location is a vacant building where a vessel fabrication shop previously was located. Described initially as a "biomining facility," Mint Innovation does not include mining in any of the ways East Texas is accustomed to seeing. No digging or moving of dirt is involved in the process. The plant would employ its newly created process already in use at its first "biorefinery" in Sydney, Australia.
Read more from the Longview News-Journal here.