Wyoming-based mineral ablation system set for Michigan Eagle Mine.

Delivering a commercial-scale system after nearly a decade of development, Wyoming-based DISA Technologies Inc. has sold its first 100-ton-per-hour high-pressure slurry ablation unit to Lundin Mining's Eagle Mine in Michigan – marking a major step forward for a homegrown mineral processing innovation that replaces traditional grinding with precision collisions to recover minerals and metals more efficiently, cleanly, and at lower cost.

Headquartered in Casper, Wyoming, DISA Technologies has emerged as one of the few U.S.-based firms designing and manufacturing advanced mineral separation systems for both industrial production and environmental remediation.

Built around its patented high-pressure slurry ablation (HPSA) process, DISA's modular system combines crushed material with water to form a slurry, then drives the mixture through opposing high-pressure nozzles to induce particle-on-particle collisions between minerals of varying hardness – a mechanical alternative to traditional grinding that targets selective breakage over indiscriminate abrasion, with early validation across diverse ore and waste streams.

Rather than grinding all material indiscriminately, the approach relies on differential fragmentation – breaking down weaker coatings or composites while leaving denser mineral grains intact.

"Imagine like a tennis ball being covered in mud and you're shooting these tennis balls at each other," DISA Technologies CEO Greyson Buckingham, told Cowboy State Daily. "What happens when they hit? The mud breaks off, but the tennis balls stay intact. And that's what we're doing, effectively just shooting millions of particles at a time at each other."

A demonstration-scale system at the Casper facility was used throughout development to visualize collision zones, validate flow parameters, and support iterative nozzle design – contributing to the final configuration deployed in commercial units.

"You'd be amazed. What we're doing is pretty simple – you're just shooting material at each other – but the slightest variation makes significant impact," continued Buckingham. "The design of the nozzles, like, that's a big part of our secret sauce."

While conventional grinding methods can account for up to 40% of mineral processing costs – and consume an estimated 4% of global electricity – DISA's system purportedly offers a targeted alternative designed to reduce energy use and material wear by replacing brute-force comminution with controlled particle disintegration.

Spending years refining and validating the design, co-founders Buckingham and John Lee moved the system from early lab tests to full-scale field pilots, backed by state innovation grants and technical partners willing to trial the technology across varied ores and site conditions.

Formally incorporated in 2017, DISA scaled operations over the following years into a full manufacturing base in Casper, supporting the in-house fabrication and assembly of modular HPSA systems for shipment to pilot sites across Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.

Alongside international testing, the company outfitted mobile units for use in Wyoming and entered early-stage agreements with uranium and rare earth developers seeking to evaluate the system under local field conditions.

In that time, DISA established collaborations with a range of major mining and industrial operators, including BHP, Rio Tinto, Newmont, and Freeport-McMoRan – enabling direct validation of its ablation system across copper, gold, and phosphate projects at both the production and pilot scale.

Additional partners such as Hecla Mining, Capstone Copper, Imperial Metals, and Nyrstar contributed field insights across diverse ore types and processing environments, while engagements with MP Materials, Talison Lithium, Ramaco Carbon, and South Star Battery Metals expanded the platform's reach into rare earths, lithium, graphite, and coal-to-products applications.

Support from Halliburton Labs, Evok Innovations, and the University of Wyoming Foundation further strengthened the company's ability to advance field testing and scale-up – contributing to the continued refinement and deployment of its mineral separation systems across evolving North American resource supply chains.

All of it now converging at Eagle Mine in Michigan, where the first commercial-scale HPSA unit has been sold to Lundin Mining for installation later this year – transitioning the technology from pilot testing to operational integration at a producing U.S. nickel and copper mine.

"This is what we're most excited about, because we've been in 'grind mode' for seven and a half years now, and we're finally getting to that stage where things are really starting to fall in line," said Buckingham.

Slated for integration into Eagle's concentrator circuit, the 100-ton-per-hour unit will process nickel and copper ore from the underground mine.

To be positioned downstream of Eagle's semi-autogenous grinding mill, the HPSA system will receive a screened feedstock stream diverted from the primary circuit – enabling direct performance benchmarking under site-specific ore conditions and throughput constraints.

Parameters under evaluation include particle liberation, recovery rates, and overall circuit efficiency, with data from Eagle expected to inform subsequent deployments and guide further system refinement.

The deployment represents a critical test of both throughput performance and operational reliability, as Lundin evaluates the technology's potential to lower energy use, reduce wear, and enhance mineral recovery compared to conventional grinding methods.