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Specialty Byproduct and High-Purity Materials Specialists

  • Albany, OR
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Focus materials: Gallium, germanium, indium, bismuth, tellurium, rhenium and related semiconductor or specialty metals
Work arrangement: Remote within the United States, with potential international travel
Engagement: Contingent, part-time/on-call specialist
Anticipated compensation: $150–$300 per hour, depending on qualifications and assignment, or a negotiated fixed price by work package. $300 per hour is the maximum anticipated rate.

Opportunity

Axyde Analytics is assembling a multidisciplinary expert team for anticipated U.S. government-funded project-scoping assignments involving critical minerals and international infrastructure.

We seek specialists capable of evaluating high-value critical minerals commonly recovered as byproducts from copper, zinc, aluminum, molybdenum, lead, precious-metal, coal, smelter, refinery or recycling streams. Assignments may span resource and feed characterization, host-circuit integration, recovery, purification, high-purity product development, market qualification and proposed U.S. refining.

Axyde does not expect one candidate to cover every listed material or process. Applicants should identify the materials, host circuits and technical disciplines in which they possess direct, demonstrable expertise.

Specialist Tracks

We are recruiting experts in one or more of the following tracks:

  • Gallium recovery from bauxite, zinc, coal or industrial-process streams

  • Germanium recovery from zinc concentrates, residues, coal or recycling

  • Indium recovery from zinc-refinery and secondary-material streams

  • Bismuth recovery from polymetallic deposits, concentrates and smelter products

  • Tellurium recovery from copper anode slimes or related refinery streams

  • Rhenium recovery from molybdenite roasting and flue-gas systems

  • Host-circuit mineralogy, deportment and mass-balance analysis

  • Low-concentration and parts-per-million recovery economics

  • Leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, precipitation and electrowinning

  • Volatilization, roasting, sublimation and gas-stream capture

  • High-purity metal and chemical refining

  • Semiconductor, optical, photovoltaic and aerospace-grade materials

  • Analytical metrology, contamination control and trace-level impurities

  • Customer qualification, product sampling and application testing

  • Specialty-metal markets, pricing, offtake and demand concentration

  • Recycling, secondary recovery and circular supply chains

Potential Responsibilities

Depending on the assignment and specialist track, selected experts may:

  • Determine whether a specialty mineral is technically and economically recoverable from an existing host circuit.

  • Evaluate resource, concentrate, residue, solution, dust, gas or recycling-feed characterization.

  • Trace critical-mineral deportment across mining, concentration, smelting, refining and residue streams.

  • Develop or review integrated mass balances at low concentrations.

  • Assess whether recovery can be added without destabilizing the host plant or primary product.

  • Evaluate leaching, separation, precipitation, electrowinning, roasting, volatilization or capture technologies.

  • Assess impurity removal, analytical detection limits and finished-product specifications.

  • Review materials compatibility, corrosion, containment, emissions and hazardous-chemistry requirements.

  • Evaluate testwork, pilot results, sampling protocols, laboratories and scale-up evidence.

  • Assess high-purity refining, packaging, storage and contamination-control requirements.

  • Review customer-qualification pathways for semiconductor, optical, photovoltaic, aerospace or defense uses.

  • Identify decisive technical information gaps and define testwork or diligence needed before advancement.

  • Evaluate power, water, reagents, infrastructure, logistics and feed-security dependencies.

  • Contribute to capital-cost, operating-cost, schedule and implementation assumptions.

  • Assess small-market dynamics, price opacity, customer concentration, offtake and financing risks.

  • Evaluate provenance, traceability and allied-source supply-chain configurations.

  • Identify realistic opportunities for U.S. equipment, engineering, technology and services.

  • Develop or review feasibility-study, technical-assistance or pilot-project terms of reference, budgets and schedules.

  • Participate in sponsor, government, supplier, laboratory, customer or financing-source discussions.

  • Support international meetings, site visits and field verification when required.

  • Prepare concise analyses and recommendations for senior government decision-makers.

  • Serve as a discipline lead, contributor, same-discipline alternate or independent technical reviewer.

Required Qualifications

Candidates should possess:

  • At least 7–10 years of directly relevant professional experience, with greater experience preferred for discipline-lead and independent-review roles.

  • A degree in economic geology, geochemistry, mineral processing, metallurgy, chemical engineering, materials science, analytical chemistry or a closely related field.

  • Direct responsibility for identifiable specialty-metal, smelter, refinery, high-purity-material, semiconductor-material or recycling projects.

  • Demonstrated ability to evaluate low-concentration recovery, host-circuit integration, impurity control or high-purity product requirements.

  • Strong written and verbal English-language communication skills.

  • Ability to prepare concise, decision-oriented technical work.

  • Ability to collaborate across resource, process, materials, commercial and financial disciplines.

  • Either U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent-resident status in the United States.

  • Legal authorization to work in the United States without current or future sponsorship.

  • Willingness and ability to travel internationally when an assignment requires it.

  • No known employment, confidentiality