Duranium (YC S25) — Reshoring critical metal production
China and Russia control the world’s critical minerals. We can produce Titanium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Zirconium & Hafnium in the U.S. more profitably than any existing process, and carbon neutrally via co-production.
Duranium is a Y Combinator company in the Summer 2025 batch. Its directory entry describes it as: Reshoring critical metal production. The founders listed are Brenden Prins-McKinney (Founder/CEO), Berkley Noble (Founder/CTO) (Y Combinator directory entry, September 6, 2025).
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China and Russia control the world’s critical minerals. We can produce Titanium, Magnesium, Aluminum, Zirconium & Hafnium in the U.S. more profitably than any existing process, and carbon neutrally via co-production.
Carbochlorination is the primary process for producing critical metals like titanium, hafnium, and zirconium, and was once the standard for magnesium. The problem: conventional carbochlorination relies on purchasing carbon feedstocks, wastes valuable byproducts, and is highly CO₂-intensive.
Duranium changes this with a novel reactor that recycles CO₂ emissions back into feedstock (CO) while generating a valuable co-product (bleaching agents). This closed loop slashes emissions and delivers Chinese-level metal pricing without subsidies — unlocking the full potential of carbochlorination for U.S. critical mineral production.
Brenden Prins-McKinney
Founder/CEO
Berkley Noble
Founder/CTO
Founders, titles and bios as the company published them. Photographs are our own copies of the ones on that record, so they do not break when the original link expires.
One of 171 companies held here in Industrials › Manufacturing and Robotics.
No investor is drawn from a Form D — the form states how many invested and never who. The one investor on this graph is named because a batch has exactly one.
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