Orca utilizes advanced seaweed extraction technology to absorb and process trace minerals from seawater, creating a sustainable, regenerative method for sourcing critical minerals without disrupting marine ecosystems or traditional mining practices.
By working with seaweed as the miner, Orca extracts critical minerals while regenerating ecosystems and strengthening natural systems.
Profits from depletion with ecological debt.
Mining is a $2.1 trillion force behind global growth—but the economics are built on depletion. Each year, over 50 billion tons are extracted, generating up to 7% of global emissions. Sixteen percent of critical mineral mines operate in water-stressed regions. As ore grades decline and costs rise, communities are left with the fallout: polluted water, damaged land, and no lasting value. This model subtracts from the future to fund the present. The deeper we dig, the less sustainable it becomes over time.
Profits from regeneration with ecological benefit.
Orca is building a regenerative mineral supply chain rooted in biology. Seaweed farms across coastal regions absorb carbon, filter water, and concentrate critical minerals from seawater. There are no emissions, no freshwater use, no fertilizer, and no waste. Each cycle leaves the ocean stronger than before. It creates durable jobs, stable output, and new forms of natural capital. Orca is a blueprint for how resource economies can grow without extraction—resilient, renewable, and designed to compound over time.
The world’s mineral supply chains are fragile, centralized, and geopolitically volatile. From cobalt in conflict zones to rare earths under authoritarian control, critical materials are bottlenecked, vulnerable, and ethically compromised.
Orca replaces extraction with regeneration — using biology, not bulldozers, to recover essential minerals from the sea. We partner with coastal communities to cultivate seaweed that absorbs trace minerals naturally, restoring marine ecosystems while creating new sources of supply.
Orca's approach bypasses traditional mining entirely — eliminating land destruction, reducing emissions, and shortening the supply chain from years to months. It also builds regional resilience: more jobs, cleaner waters, and greater resource independence.
We’ve developed elite, high-performance seaweed strains, assembled critical biological data, and forged strategic partnerships to build a new mineral supply chain that grows with demand and restores ecosystems.
Orca’s model combines regenerative ocean farming, targeted biological uptake, and scalable refinement --all designed for measurable and veriable regeneration.
Unlike deep-sea mining, which scars the seafloor, Orca works with living systems — using seaweed to recover critical minerals while strengthening marine habitats.
This is a faster, cleaner, regenerative mineral economy powered by photosynthesis.
Seawater holds the blueprint for Orca Minerals.
Seawater covers over 70 percent of the planet and contains nearly every element on the periodic table.
This abundance is not theoretical. It is measurable, and elements like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths are already present in trace amounts across the ocean.
Orca uses seaweed as a biological platform to absorb and concentrate the minerals that modern systems depend on. Through photosynthesis, the same process also draws down carbon.
Guided by chemistry and biology, Orca's vision is to work in reciprocity with the ocean—concentrating the elements that power modern life while supporting the balance that makes life possible.
Blog:. By Jane Lalonde, CMO
America’s Mineral Strategy Ends at the Border.
April 15, 2025
The U.S. is rich in critical minerals but lacks the facilities to process them. This gap forces us to send raw materials abroad, losing both value and control.
Historically, we had robust refining capabilities, but over time, these have diminished. Now, with increasing global demand and geopolitical pressures, it's time now to accelerate innovative approaches like Orca.
In alliance with The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Orca initiative is exploring how seaweed can extract valuable minerals from seawater.
Orca’s precision-cultivated species, grown across coastal farms from Alaska to Mexico are engineered for extraordinary mineral uptake and ecosystem renewal. Every harvest strengthens the living world.
This is the new foundation of blue biotechnology — one that restores ecosystems through regenerative cultivation, applies biological intelligence at every step, and follows the principles nature has used to sustain life for millions of years.
At Orca, we are committed to a mining revolution that delivers the resources the world needs without compromising the health of our planet or national security.
The Orca Zero + equation is built on four uncompromising principles—no waste, no depletion, no harm, and no emissions.
Plus all the benefits that nature has for the world when it is in balance such as renewal, regeneration, healing, and carbon absorption to mitigate climate change.
