#41 - Don Weatherbee: "Catalyzing" change beyond the mine - scaling up metals regeneration to enable the future circular economy

Don Weatherbee, CEO of Regenx Tech Corp in Alberta, Canada shows us how you can scale up metals recycling (or regeneration as he calls it) sustainably. We discuss his journey from studying accounting to joining the mining and resources industry and how he is now leveraging opportunities to close the loop and create the circular economy around critical metals worldwide, in particular, the opportunity of aligning chemistry, process and supply chains around catalytic converts and Platinum Group Metals.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Snowy Canada and Units
3:25 Unraveling the broader power of accounting
7:19 Dealing with post-mine closures challenges
11:35 Regeneration vs. Recycling of Metals
13:51 From junior exploration to catalytic converters
18:46 Catalytic Converters 101
22:59 Hydrometallurgy for regenerating metals
25:17 Scaling up from lab to pilot to plant
30:51 Challenges with eWaste Recycling
34:03 Long-term trends for Platinum and Palladium
38:48 Thought experiment on the market size
40:39 Limitations of mining requires more recycling
42:25 What's in store for RegenX?
45:08 Q&A Start
45:43 What is innovation?
47:57 Key moment, book, event
50:46 Time management
53:50 Favourite childhood memory
56:06 Biggest challenge to date
59:11 Advice for young professionals
1:01:02 What would you like to be remembered for
1:02:07 Where can people find you?
1:02:58 Final Message
1:03:20 Outro

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