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Senior Mineral Processing, Metallurgy and Refining Specialist

Opportunity track: SEA / GLOBAL
Engagement: Contingent individual consultant; engagement may be direct or through an eligible U.S. consulting firm
Location: Remote — United States, with possible international travel
Primary promotion location: Houston, Texas 77002
Anticipated consulting fee: $150–$300 per hour, or a negotiated fixed price by work package

The opportunity

Axyde is building a senior expert bench for anticipated U.S. government-funded project-scoping assignments involving critical-minerals beneficiation, concentration, separation, refining, recycling, and recovery from primary ores and secondary feedstocks across the Indo-Pacific and other global markets.

The selected specialist will help Axyde determine whether proposed processing technologies and facilities have a credible technical basis, sufficient maturity, realistic scale-up pathway, commercially reasonable assumptions, and an appropriately designed next-stage feasibility study, technical-assistance assignment, pilot, or demonstration. Assignments may begin with incomplete data and require rapid, independent, and defensible conclusions.

Potential responsibilities

• Review mineralogical and geometallurgical data, metallurgical test work, process flowsheets, mass and energy balances, recoveries, yields, throughput assumptions, and product specifications.
• Evaluate comminution, beneficiation, gravity or magnetic separation, flotation, leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, precipitation, electrowinning, thermal processing, refining, purification, and recycling technologies, as applicable.
• Assess technology readiness, process selectivity, impurity management, scale-up risk, equipment assumptions, pilot requirements, and the evidence needed to support technical claims.
• Evaluate feedstock availability, mineralogy, grade, variability, blending, logistics, sampling, qualification, and security-of-supply considerations.
• Assess reagent and consumable requirements, water and power demand, emissions, waste streams, residues, tailings, process safety, and environmental-control interfaces.
• Evaluate processing-facility interfaces with mines, utilities, transport infrastructure, intermediate products, customers, and downstream manufacturing.
• Develop or independently review preliminary throughput, recovery, production, schedule, CAPEX, OPEX, implementation, and risk assumptions at a level appropriate to the available information.
• Develop or review technical tasks, required qualifications, deliverables, schedules, and budgets for pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, technical assistance, pilots, and demonstrations.
• Compare alternative processing pathways and identify material data gaps, decision criteria, testing requirements, risk mitigations, and stage-gate recommendations.
• Participate in sponsor interviews, technical-diligence calls, and occasional site visits involving project sponsors, host-country stakeholders, financiers, technology providers, and prospective U.S. suppliers.
• Contribute to concept consultations, initial assessments, project reports, presentations, and critical-minerals sector deep dives.
• Clearly distinguish source data, professional judgments, assumptions, limitations, and matters requiring validation by a Professional Engineer, Qualified Person, Competent Person, or other appropriately licensed professional.

Required qualifications

• Degree in metallurgical engineering, mineral processing, chemical engineering, extractive metallurgy, or a closely related discipline.
• At least 10 years of directly relevant processing, refining, recycling, process-development, operations, engineering, or consulting experience.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating or developing at least one critical-minerals processing, separation, refining, recycling, or secondary-recovery project.
• Experience translating test results and technical findings into practical development plans, scopes of work, schedules, budgets, decision criteria, and risk-mitigation measures.
• Ability to evaluate early-stage technologies and incomplete datasets without overstating maturity, performance, or commercial readiness.
• Strong analytical writing skills and the ability to work under compressed schedules.
• Contract-required status: The individual performing the work must be either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States (green-card holder). Other forms of U.S. work authorization do not satisfy the stated requirements of the anticipated contracts. A consultant engaged directly as an individual must maintain a principal place of business in the United States. A consultant proposed through a firm must be employed or engaged through an entity that independently satisfies the solicitation’s U.S.-firm requirements.

Preferred qualifications

• Professional Engineer registration or another directly relevant professional credential.
• Experience advancing a process from laboratory testing through pilot, demonstration, detailed engineering, commissioning, or commercial operation.
• Experience with rare earths, gallium, graphite, lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, antimony, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, battery materials, or other strategic materials.
• Experience with primary ores and one or more secondary sources such as tailings, mine waste, metallurgical residues, industrial byproducts, scrap, or end-of-life products.
• Experience preparing or independently reviewing process-design criteria, metallurgical test programs, feasibility studies, pilot plans, and project budgets.
• Familiarity with lender or investor technical due diligence and the technical inputs required for project economic and financial analysis.
• Emerging-market experience and familiarity with international project sponsors, host-country governments, U.S. government agencies, or development-finance institutions.

Engagement conditions

This is a contingent consulting opportunity, not an offer of full-time employment. No award, assignment, minimum number of hours, or minimum compensation is guaranteed. Engagement depends on contract award, assignment fit, eligibility, conflicts, availability, successful completion of Axyde’s due diligence, and agreement on scope and pricing. The stated fee range is an anticipated range; the final rate or fixed price will depend on experience, role, work-package requirements, and applicable cost-reasonableness requirements.

Some assignments may require rapid turnaround, irregular coordination across time zones, or international travel. Travel requirements, approvals, insurance, and reimbursable costs will be addressed in the applicable consulting agreement or work order.

Participation in a U.S. Trade and Development Agency project-scoping assignment may make the participating consultant or subcontracting entity ineligible to compete—whether as a prime contractor, subcontractor, or otherwise—for certain USTDA-funded follow-on activities resulting from that assignment, unless USTDA grants a waiver. Axyde will disclose the applicable restriction and obtain written acceptance before issuing a work order.

Selected specialists may be asked for written permission to include their name, qualifications, and resume in a proposal. Applying does not by itself authorize Axyde to represent that an applicant has committed to a proposal or assignment.

Work performed under an awarded contract will be subject to applicable confidentiality, data-rights, information-security, professional-responsibility, and conflict-of-interest requirements. Any background intellectual property should be identified before an assignment begins.

How to apply

Apply through Axyde’s online application form using the heading SEA/GLOBAL – Mineral Processing, Metallurgy and Refining Specialist. Please provide:

• A resume or CV of no more than three pages.
• Two or three concise, directly relevant project examples identifying your role, feedstock or commodity, jurisdiction, process route and development stage, principal technical questions, and the resulting work product or decision.
• Your U.S. location, travel availability, availability during the anticipated performance period, and proposed hourly rate or fixed-price basis.
• A self-attestation that you are either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident and, if you would contract directly as an individual, that your principal place of business is in the United States. Applicants proposing engagement through a firm should identify the firm and confirm that it meets the applicable solicitation definition of a U.S. firm.
• Any relevant professional licenses, process-specific qualifications, or experience acting in a formal technical-review or signatory capacity.
• Any known organizational conflicts, current client restrictions, or planned pursuits of potentially related USTDA-funded work.

Do not submit a passport, green card, Social Security number, or other identity document with the initial application. Do not include classified, export-controlled, proprietary, patent-sensitive, or client-confidential information in project examples; anonymized descriptions are acceptable. Axyde will request only the documentation needed at the appropriate stage of selection and engagement.

Axyde considers qualified applicants without regard to any status protected by applicable law. The citizenship or permanent-residence limitation above applies solely to work covered by the stated U.S. government contract requirements.

Files:

• [Markdown version](/Users/danwhalen/Documents/Codex/2026-08-16/bid/outputs/axyde-expert-opportunities/03-mineral-processing-metallurgy-refining.md)
• [Plain-text version](/Users/danwhalen/Documents/Codex/2026-08-16/bid/outputs/axyde-expert-opportunities/plain-text/03-mineral-processing-metallurgy-refining.txt)