Ridgeline Founder Stories: Deep Patel of BlueShift is Scaling a New Model for Domestic Mineral Extraction

If you’ve ever held a smartphone, driven an electric vehicle, or relied on cloud services, you’ve relied on critical minerals—materials like nickel and rare earth elements that are foundational to modern industry and clean energy. The problem? Today, the vast majority of these minerals are processed overseas—primarily in China—using environmentally harmful methods and fragile supply chains. As demand surges and geopolitical pressures mount, the U.S. faces an urgent need to establish secure, sustainable, and scalable domestic sources.

That’s where BlueShift comes in. BlueShift is developing next-generation electrochemical technology to unlock critical minerals from unconventional sources such as industrial waste and seawater—while simultaneously removing CO₂ from the ocean. Ridgeline participated in the company’s recent $2.1 million pre-seed round.

We sat down with co-founder and CEO Deep Patel to explore the company’s origins, technology, and bold vision for transforming resource extraction in the age of climate and industrial resilience.

Let’s start at the beginning. What was the moment or observation that made you realize BlueShift had to exist?

DP: I saw the concentration of critical mineral processing that China was doing, and the urgent need to de-risk that dependence by establishing a more resilient, domestic supply chain—one that had to be clean and economical. We can’t just copy-paste China’s approach; it isn’t environmentally sustainable, and it would cost around seven times more to replicate here. That meant an innovation was needed. My co-founder, Professor David Kwabi, had been developing just that at Harvard—and that became the genesis of BlueShift.

What was going on in your life at the time? Where were you, and what were you doing when you had this realization?

DP: At the time, I was a Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon’s moonshot lab, working on advanced electrochemical systems. I had a front-row seat to what “state-of-the-art” looked like, and I was building a business case around these capabilities. It struck me that one of the most meaningful applications was in mining and mineral processing—something that could have a real, tangible impact on economic resilience.

Economic upliftment has always been a core motivation for me; it’s what initially drew me to nuclear engineering. But with BlueShift, I saw an even broader mission: strengthening the backbone of our supply chains and creating long-term economic security.

What’s one of the most misunderstood things about critical minerals today?

DP: From a policymaker perspective, there’s a strong focus on upstream mining—digging material out of the Earth. But there’s a crucial middle step that often gets missed: processing. Once minerals are mined, they have to be refined before they’re usable in manufacturing. This “missing middle” is exactly where China dominates today.

If we don’t build domestic processing capacity, we can’t truly localize the supply chain—and without that, we won’t achieve real economic resilience.

Can you describe what a pilot installation of BlueShift will look like in the real world? Where will it be placed? What does it run on, and who operates it?

DP: Our first focus is on processing secondary waste streams, which helps us prove and scale the technology safely before moving into new mining outputs.

Eventually, we’ll be located directly downstream of mining operations—right where raw materials exit the mine. Picture modular, shipping container–sized units on-site at a mine or industrial facility. These units are remotely operated and monitored using AI to analyze incoming waste in real time and precisely extract critical minerals.

This modular, autonomous approach allows us to deploy quickly and scale flexibly wherever new or existing materials are processed.

What’s the future you’re building toward? What does success look like at scale?

DP: We’re building for the wave of mining projects coming back onshore. Success for us means being directly integrated into these sites—processing all the material coming out of the ground so it can be used domestically.

At scale, BlueShift becomes an essential part of the industrial supply chain, powering economic resilience and helping decouple critical mineral sourcing from fragile global dependencies.

What kinds of partners or industries have shown early enthusiasm? Is there anything that surprises you about the interest?

DP: We’re working with partners across mining, oil and gas, and utilities. Each industry has different types of waste and different goals, but they all share an interest in turning liabilities into value.

What’s surprised me most is the openness to innovation. These sectors are often seen as slow-moving, but we’ve seen a genuine willingness to adopt new technologies and find solutions that improve both economics and environmental outcomes.

You’ve worked in ambitious labs and moonshot environments. What lessons from those experiences are now shaping your approach at BlueShift?

DP: At Amazon, I learned how to run complex processes and execute at scale—lessons that are crucial when you’re building hardware-based systems meant to operate in the real world.

My background in nuclear engineering gave me a dual perspective: the experimental side, where I learned about tolerances, fabrication, and machining, and the economic side, where I focused on system-wide modeling and optimization. That blend allows me to make strong technical trade-offs and think holistically about impact.

When you walk a policymaker or investor through your pilot site, what’s the one big thing you want them to walk away knowing?

DP: I want them to leave with a deep understanding that this isn’t just another operation—it’s a team uniquely capable of transforming mineral processing in the U.S. We invented this technology ourselves. We have Professor Kwabi as co-founder, and an interim CTO who previously helped scale Verdox’s electrochemical platform.

We’ve assembled one of the best technical teams in the space, and we’re deeply committed to making domestic processing a reality.

Looking ahead a decade, what shifts do you predict in how the world sources critical minerals?

DP: I see two parallel markets emerging. China will continue to have its strong market, and a second market will develop—one that prioritizes resilience and supply certainty, even at a premium.

Domestically, BlueShift aims to be central to that second market. Our modular processors will handle a variety of critical minerals—from rare earth elements to gallium—and create a stronger, more secure foundation for industries that depend on them.

Learn more about BlueShift at buildblueshift.com.

This interview was lightly edited for clarity and length.