What Hydromet does

HydrometWA (Pty) Ltd is a specialist international hydrometallurgical consulting firm serving the global metal and mining industry. The company was established in South Africa in 2000 by director Grenvil Dunn and reincorporated in Western Australia in 2018, with its operating base in East Perth. Its services center on flowsheet development, management of batch testwork and pilot-plant campaigns, desktop and scoping studies, provision of basic engineering packages, and technical reviews for mining and metals clients.

The firm's technical differentiation rests on a portfolio of nine granted patents covering proprietary pressure-leaching, atmospheric-leaching, autoclave-design, and smelterless concentrate-treatment processes, spanning nickel, copper, cobalt, PGM, uranium, and lithium recovery. Named engagements include work for Impala Platinum Ltd on iron rejection from nickel leach liquor and for Lonrho Platinum Base Metal on base-metal refining operations, both within the platinum-group-metals refining niche. The company monetizes these capabilities through project-based, quote-driven consulting engagements with enterprise mining and metals counterparties, with no productized offering or disclosed pricing structure.

The business is a 7-person founder-led boutique with no disclosed funding, no public ticker, and no subsidiaries. Its competitive position is anchored in the depth of the founder's documented expertise (conference publications from 1986 through ALTA 2010) and the narrow defensibility of its patented processes rather than in scale, distribution, or recurring revenue infrastructure.

Name

Hydromet

Legal name

HydrometWA (Pty) Ltd

Website

https://hydromet.co.za

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

HydrometWA is a 7-person, founder-led international hydrometallurgical consulting firm serving global mining and metals clients, specializing in pressure and atmospheric leaching flowsheets for nickel, copper, cobalt, PGM, uranium, and lithium recovery, underpinned by nine granted patents.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Metallurgical Consulting Services

NAICS

Environmental Consulting Services (54162)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Mine Dewatering & Water Management Services (Pumping, Treatment, Tailings Water Return) (IMAKAKAI)

Keywords

• Hydrometallurgical consulting
• Metal extraction processes
• Mining engineering services
• Pressure leaching technology
• Process flowsheet development

Headquarters

HQ city

East Perth

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

HydrometWA is an international consulting company for the metal and mining industry, providing specialized hydrometallurgical services including flowsheet development, management of batch testwork and pilot plant campaigns, desktop and scoping studies, basic engineering packages, and technical reviews. The firm focuses on processing of nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, PGM, and lithium, leveraging a portfolio of patented processes spanning pressure leaching, atmospheric leaching, autoclave optimization, and MHP-to-metal conversion.

Product overview

HydrometWA is an international consulting company for the metal and mining industry, offering specialized metallurgical consulting services. The company's core offerings include flowsheet development, management of batch testwork and pilot plant campaigns, desktop and scoping studies, provision of basic engineering packages, and reviews. They specialize in processing key commodities including nickel (pressure and atmospheric leaching of concentrates, mattes, and laterite to intermediates and metal), cobalt and copper (pressure and atmospheric leaching of concentrates, sulphides, oxides to intermediates and metal), uranium (alkali and acid processes), PGM (recovery and refining), and lithium recovery from Salar brines and refining. The company does not offer discrete productized offerings but rather delivers consulting expertise and engineering services tailored to client needs in hydrometallurgical processing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Hydrometallurgical Consulting Services End-to-end hydrometallurgical consulting for mining and metals clients, including flowsheet development, management of batch testwork and pilot plant campaigns, desktop and scoping studies, provision of basic engineering packages, and technical reviews. The service is delivered to enterprise mining companies processing nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, PGM, and lithium, leveraging nine granted patents and the founder's multi-decade expertise in pressure and atmospheric leaching, autoclave optimization, and MHP-to-metal conversion.
• Flowsheet Development Development of hydrometallurgical flowsheets for metal extraction and refining operations, targeted at mining and metals companies evaluating or designing process routes for nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, PGM, and lithium.
• Batch Testwork and Pilot Plant Campaign Management Management of laboratory batch testwork programs and pilot plant campaigns for hydrometallurgical clients, supporting process design, scale-up, and de-risking of metal extraction and refining operations.
• Desktop and Scoping Studies Desktop and scoping study services for mining and metals clients evaluating hydrometallurgical projects, covering process option screening, mass and energy balance development, and preliminary economic considerations.
• Basic Engineering Packages Provision of basic engineering packages for hydrometallurgical metal extraction and refining projects, intended to support client engineering teams in advancing from study phase to detailed design for nickel, copper, cobalt, uranium, PGM, and lithium operations.
• Technical Reviews Independent technical reviews of hydrometallurgical processes, operating plants, and proposed flowsheets for mining and metals clients seeking expert validation or troubleshooting support.

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature9 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin): Large engineering services firm with a minerals and metals practice delivering metallurgical testing, engineering and EPC services to mining clients; comparable as an incumbent hydromet consultancy though metals is only one of many verticals.
• Wood PLC: Large multi-discipline engineering and consulting firm with a minerals and metals practice that includes hydrometallurgy; competes for metallurgical consulting work but as one part of a much broader energy/resources portfolio.
• SGS: Global inspection, verification, testing and certification company with extensive minerals testing laboratories that perform bench and pilot-scale metallurgical testwork—the same service category Hydromet offers in batch testwork and pilot plant management.
• Metso: Global minerals processing and metals refining equipment and services provider with hydrometallurgy expertise through plant and equipment supply; serves the same mining clients as Hydromet and competes for hydromet program work.
• Bureau Veritas: International testing, inspection and certification group with a minerals and metals division that delivers metallurgical and mineralogical testing services, providing a partial overlap with Hydromet's pilot and testwork management offering.
• Worley: Australian-headquartered engineering and project delivery firm serving mining and metals clients; overlapping with Hydromet on minerals processing and hydromet studies though its core business is EPC and asset services.

Emerging players

• METS Engineering: Australian mining and metallurgical engineering consultancy offering engineering, project management and process services to resource clients; overlaps with Hydromet's flowsheet development and scoping study work.
• pH7 Process Technologies: Specialist hydrometallurgy and critical-minerals process development firm focused on battery metals (Ni, Co, Li) with proprietary flowsheets; competes with Hydromet for the same junior-to-mid-cap hydromet consulting mandates at the energy-transition end of the market.

Direct peers

• Core Resources: Australia-based hydrometallurgy and minerals processing consultancy offering flowsheet development, piloting and engineering services to the same mining and metals client base as Hydromet, making it the closest like-for-like peer in the Australian market.
• Hatch: Global engineering consultancy with a large hydrometallurgy practice serving Ni, Co, Cu and PGM clients worldwide; competes for the same flowsheet development and pilot plant management mandates and dwarfs Hydromet on scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hydromet

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hydromet