Imagine a place where a physician can see patients in the morning, teach a class in the afternoon, go to the lab to check in on their research, then finish their day at their startup’s office—all without ever having to get in the car.
Endolith Mines with Microbes
John Himes
May 23, 2025
Consider the amount of electricity that needs to move in today’s world.
Nearly all our tech—from consumer electronics to massive AI data centers–—relies on getting electrons from one place to another. When you add in the energy transition and the electrification of transportation and industry, that demand grows exponentially.
You’ve probably heard about the role critical minerals play in this story: lithium for batteries, rare earths for high-tech, titanium for aerospace.
But have you considered copper? To most of us, copper seems basic, abundant, and unexciting. But the truth is, this metal forms the arteries of all electronics. There’s a reason copper wire is so ubiquitous: it’s the best conductor of electricity outside the precious metals.
Copper demand is growing. The world will need to produce more copper between 2025 and 2050 than in the last 5,000 years combined, according to S&P Global. But supply has struggled to keep up. We’re on track to face serious shortfalls. That is, unless disruptive tech provides industry with a breakthrough.
Enter Endolith Mining. This industrial biotech startup in Arvada, Colorado, breeds and deploys microbes that extract copper by eating through ore.
Just over a year after closing their seed round, they’re already collaborating with major players like BHP (through its Think & Act Differently (TAD) program) and Rio Tinto. “There’s a big misconception that mining is not aligned with sustainability. If you want to transition to a more sustainable economy, creating ways to channel electrons is critical,” says Dr. Liz Dennett, Endolith’s founder and CEO.
“Working with mining companies in ways that align with how they do business is the most sustainable thing that I can spend my time and energy doing.”
Why mine with microbes?
The secret to Endolith’s innovation starts with what Dennett calls the “microbial minions.”
“Microbes are nature’s oldest miners,” she explains. “They’ve been working for four billion years to liberate that copper.”
Endolithic organisms—rock-munching microbes—shape our world. More than 90% of the world’s microbes may live underground, with many of them categorized as extremophiles, meaning they find homes in places considered otherwise uninhabitable.
Endolith brings together biotech, advanced genomics, cloud-based AI, and deep mining expertise to deploy customized microbes tailored to each mine’s ore composition and environmental conditions.
At the end of the day, it’s about disrupting the status quo to provide industry with a cleaner, more efficient extraction process. Right now, many copper mines use a hydrometallurgy technique called heap leaching, which involves piling tons of crushed ore into a step pyramid shape and spraying it with acids and other chemicals. These dissolve the copper, and it collects in what is essentially a drip tray at the bottom of the heap.
There are a few problems, though. Most of this ore is considered low-grade, meaning it contains only 0.25% copper—and 70% of the world’s copper is trapped in such ores. On top of that, heap leaching only extracts around 50% of the total copper.
“That extra 50% becomes waste,” explains Dennett. “It becomes tailings, and it becomes a future liability like acid mine drainage.”
With internal lab tests and validation through BHP’s TAD program showing improved copper recovery from low-grade ores, Endolith’s approach could help mining companies boost profitability, increase copper supply, and reduce environmental impact by minimizing acid drainage and reliance on new mine development.
How to mine with microbes
It all starts with Endolith’s “biological intelligence platform,” where they use AI and genomics to match a mine’s exact ore with one or more of the 50+ microbial communities stored in their lab.
From there, they genetically modify the microbes, but not using CRISPR technology like many types of bioengineering. Instead, they put the microbes through what Dennett calls an “Olympic training camp where they go from normal microbes to super microbes.” More technically, it’s known as adaptive laboratory evolution.
Because they have short life cycles, microbes can quickly adapt and evolve. So, for instance, if a mine uses salt or brackish water to irrigate ore, the microbes need to be able to tolerate that salinity. The Endolith team will progressively make the microbe’s environment saltier and saltier, and the organisms that can survive will propagate until eventually the entire community features improved salt tolerance.
Once the biohatchery tanks are filled with microbes ready for prime time, Endolith ships them to the mine site. It’s essentially a plug-and-play solution for operators already accustomed to heap leaching hydrometallurgy. They inject the microbes into the existing irrigation, and the microbial minions “begin their wild ride into the heap,” says Dennett.
Once the ore has been inoculated, the microbes gradually spread throughout the heap and must outcompete the existing microbial tenants. Eventually, they colonize the entire heap and act as a catalyst for redox reactions that break down and oxidize key components of the ore. In other words, they eat the rock and release the copper.
While copper remains the primary focus, Endolith is also beginning to explore microbial applications for other key minerals like lithium. Theoretically, this technology could apply to mining for any mineral. “They’re still the same microbial minions,” concludes Dennett. “We just deploy them in a slightly different way.”
Elemental beginnings of a biomining startup
Endolith’s journey began with a eureka moment over drinks in a pub in Scotland.
The conversation turned to the kind of crisis that could cause a zombie apocalypse—or at least bring modern civilization to its knees. Dennett initially posited that it would be a lack of fresh water, but her colleagues assured her that we have the tech to solve that.
Instead, they said, it’s going to be a lack of copper. People aren’t thinking through the copper life cycle. The supply hasn’t caught up to the demand. This, they said, is what is going to bring human civilization to a grinding halt.
“Why don’t you just use microbes?” asked Dennett. “It’s not that hard.”
“Why don’t you?” replied her colleague.
She then realized she had to do something about this instead of just talking about it. “It turns out this is not so easy, so we’ve established a great team of scientists and mining experts to bring this complex science into industry,” say Dennett.
Despite the fact that she preferred more technical roles and never wanted to be a CEO, she founded Endolith in 2023, closed an oversubscribed $5.13 million seed round in 2024, and just over a year later, the company is already working with some of the world’s largest mining companies.
“There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” says Dennett. “This has been the most fulfilling role I’ve ever been in. It’s my everything.”
Dr. Liz Dennett's story
Raised in a small Alaska town without paved roads or cable TV, Dennett learned how to be self-sufficient while developing a love for the landscape and the resources nature provides. From an early age, she was outspoken and challenged norms.
After finishing an undergrad in geology, she applied for astrobiology grad programs. “I cold emailed all of the astrobiology programs and said, ‘Hey, you don’t know me, but give me the chance and I will work my butt off,’” she recalls. It worked, and six years later she finished her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She then went on to her first job in the oil and gas industry. “I had a lot of misplaced notions about what it would be like to work in O&G because I always thought they were kind of dirty and polluting,” she says. “My project was looking at how we could save water, and I found out we could do things differently and reduce the environmental impact of some of our wells. At that point, I realized I can be a force for good inside of here.”
Her path twisted and turned, from a DNA sequencing startup to AWS’s energy group to Wood Mackenzie in Scotland. Eventually she landed in her dream role—CTO—at Cemvita, a biotech company that uses microbes to transform CO2 and other industrial waste products into valuable compounds.
When Cemvita spun Endolith out as an independent company, Dennett decided to jump in with both feet and take on the mantle of CEO.
Like a microbial community
From the beginning, Dennett prioritized building an incredible team and collaborative culture at her company. She likens her team to a microbial community where each member plays a key role. Different microbes in a biofilm, for instance, may absorb different wavelengths of light or eat different things, such as iron or methane.
“We are optimized like a biofilm, where we all have our own expertise,” says Dennett. That expertise ranges from hydrometallurgy to bioengineering to cloud computing and AI.
Together, they’ve hit significant technical and business milestones and worked through the challenges inherent to a startup: there’s no roadmap, they have to adapt on the fly, and they never stop learning.
For Dennett, one of the biggest moments was standing in front of their new location in Arvada and seeing the Endolith sign out front. It may seem small, but to have a sign on a brick-and-mortar location and declare “We are a business!” feels great and is a source of motivation for her.
Going forward, Endolith is gearing up for their first field deployment, continuing their scale-up, and spreading the word about mining with microbes.
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Colorado brings together mining, environmental stewardship, and disruptive tech
“I’m pretty sure we single-handedly keep our local Snarf’s Sandwiches in business,” says Dennett. Now that’s a sentiment everyone on the Front Range can relate to!
Jokes aside, Colorado’s vibrant tech ecosystem has been crucial to Endolith’s success. Between access to capital and talent, a collaborative culture, and the state’s mining heritage—all combined with the splendor of the Rocky Mountains—Colorado is the perfect place to build a tech company disrupting the mining industry.
Nomadic Venture Partners, a VC firm that invests in companies focused on industrial decarbonization and accessing the metals needed for the energy transition, was a key early champion.
“Colorado is a natural space for mining innovation to take hold,” says Tem Tumurbat, cofounder and managing partner. “Between plugging into the Colorado School of Mines ecosystem, building the right team, and leveraging the unique resources in Colorado, Endolith has an unfair advantage toward becoming a poster child for startup success in the state.”
Speaking of Mines, with Endolith’s Arvada lab less than 10 miles from campus, the startup and the R1 research university are a perfect match. Endolith has hired Mines graduates, gotten involved in startup-focused events, and brought Jasper Bertisen, an adjunct professor, onto their board as a mining commercial and strategy advisor.
Mountain-town community
The advantages of building a startup in Colorado don’t stop at the high-tech world. For instance, Endolith often encounters their friendly landlord, who goes above and beyond to make sure their building has everything the company needs. Interactions like these remind Dennett of the close-knit communities she’s found in Alaska and Wisconsin.
“This community has been incredibly helpful so that we can focus on the science and technology,” says Dennett. “We want to spend our time changing the world with microbes, so we need people around us that we can trust.”
Put it all together, and you can see the real reason Colorado is becoming one of the country’s top tech hubs. The people come together to solve tough challenges. They’re largely aligned in a shared commitment to being a positive force in the energy transition. And of course, we live among the literal giants of the Rockies.
“At a human cellular level, I think we do take inspiration from this space we are in,” concludes Dennett. “Every day on my way to work, I see the mountains, and it’s incredible. We need natural resources and mining, but we also have to protect it because it’s so beautiful. These are the things that give me a reason, a why, and a sense of resilience.”
About the Colorado Tech Spotlight
The Colorado Tech Spotlight highlights local innovations and the stories behind them. The series explores how the Colorado tech ecosystem creates an environment that promotes technological progress.
It is produced by Dynamic Tech Media and written by John Himes. Photography by Kort Duce.
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