Company History

UrbanMines Company History

Background

UrbanMines traces its history back more than 18 years. It started as a small workshop producing high-purity copper powder from scrap copper, and has gradually evolved into the high-tech raw material enterprise it is today. The name UrbanMines originates from the company’s founding roots in resource recycling and reuse.

Timeline

April 2007

The company established a manufacturing facility in Huizhou, China, initiating the recycling of copper scrap from precision stamping plants in South China. High-purity copper powder was produced through chemical replacement, reduction, separation, and purification processes.

September 2010

UrbanMines set up its Shenzhen office and built an international business development team. It began exporting high-purity copper and copper alloy powder, electrolytic nickel powder, tungsten powder, molybdenum powder, and tungsten carbide powder, providing customized supply solutions for overseas customers.

May 2012

The company entered into an industry-university-research strategic cooperation with the School of Materials Science of a renowned university in Guangzhou. It launched R&D on high-purity battery-grade compounds of cobalt salt, nickel salt, and manganese salt, and built production lines for ternary precursor homologous processes, extraction, and crystallization at inland production bases.

April 2014

UrbanMines established a Hong Kong subsidiary and logistics warehouse, providing strong support for global market expansion and customer service.

May 2015

Through equity investment, the company set up a metal salt processing plant in Chongqing, specializing in wet-process refining of high-purity lithium salt, cesium salt, and strontium salt. This marked its full entry into the R&D, production, and customization of oxides and compounds of minor metals and rare metals.

January 2017

UrbanMines signed a strategic cooperation agreement with a materials science team from a university in Jiangxi Province to jointly develop extraction, separation, and purification technologies for oxides and compounds of lanthanum, cerium, and neodymium. High-purity single rare earth solutions were prepared via neutralization, sulfide precipitation, ion exchange, and other processes. The company also upgraded reactors, precision filters, ion exchange columns, and other equipment, officially entering the rare earth compound business.

October 2020

The company formed an in-depth strategic partnership with a distinguished materials science professor’s team from a Hong Kong university to develop production technologies for high-purity crystalline boron, including halogenation rectification and vapor reduction precipitation. Through technology investment, it achieved industrialization with inland manufacturers and planned to expand boron-based products to boron alloy powder and boron compounds.

July 2024

UrbanMines fully completed the OEM customized processing system for high-purity metal compounds of vanadium, titanium, tantalum, niobium, hafnium, and indium. Technical engineers were stationed on-site long-term to provide technical support and strict quality control, ensuring on-time delivery and stable product quality.

March 2026

The shareholders’ meeting approved a comprehensive reform and innovation of the original metal powder processing business. To meet growing global demand for core functional metal powders in high-end manufacturing sectors including semiconductors, aerospace, nuclear energy, new energy, electronic components, and 3D printing, the company will independently develop and produce:

Special high-end spherical alloy powder

High-purity elementary & electronic-grade fine metal powder

Core-shell composite conductive functional powder