A Kiwi start-up is preparing to go global with its business and build the first commercial refinery that can extract precious metals from e-waste.

Mint Innovation melts down old computer circuit boards and uses micro-organisms that suck up precious metals like gold and palladium.

The company has just raised $20 million to take things to the next level.

Chief executive Will Barker told Heather du Plessis-Allan that most of this waste ends up in landfills, causing metals to leak into the waterways, or the waste gets exported to third world countries.

"We've come up with this localised solution that prevents anything being exported or thrown into landfill."

He says the next scale is deploying commercial plants anywhere there's a waste problem.

"Looking to deploy into Australia, looking to deploy into the UK, and then global domination."

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