A startup story rooted in materials
Barinder Rasode is not building another software company.
In a recent feature with Vancouver Tech Journal’s Six Questions, One Startup, she outlines a business grounded in something more tangible. Critical minerals.
As founder of Tersa Critical Minerals, Rasode is working in a space that rarely gets framed as startup territory. Yet her focus reflects a growing reality.
The technologies shaping the future all depend on physical inputs. Batteries, clean energy systems, and digital infrastructure require materials that must be sourced and processed.
Rasode’s work sits directly in that chain. Her company is positioned to address how those materials move from the ground into usable form.
That alone makes the story notable.
Making the invisible visible
One of the persistent challenges in this space is visibility.
Mining and materials are essential, but often overlooked. They sit behind the products people use every day.
Rasode’s approach brings that hidden layer forward. She frames critical minerals not as a legacy industry, but as part of the innovation economy.
That shift matters. It changes how investors, policymakers, and the public understand the sector.
Instead of being seen as separate from technology, mining becomes a prerequisite for it.
This is where startup thinking can help. It introduces a language of efficiency, scalability, and problem-solving that resonates beyond the sector.
Mining Month with a wider lens
The timing of the interview aligns with Mining Month in Canada.
Traditionally, the focus has been on production, jobs, and community impact. Those remain important.
But stories like Rasode’s suggest a broader narrative is emerging.
Mining is no longer just about extraction. It is about enabling entire systems. Clean energy, electrification, and advanced manufacturing all depend on reliable supply chains.
For Canada, that creates both opportunity and responsibility.
The country has the resources and expertise to lead. But leadership also requires clarity in how the story is told.
Connecting mining to innovation is part of that work.
Bridging sectors and expectations
Rasode operates at the intersection of two very different worlds.
On one side is the startup ecosystem, driven by speed and iteration. On the other is resource development, shaped by long timelines and complex approvals.
Bringing those together is not simple. But it may be necessary.
Innovation in mining often comes through incremental gains. Better processing, reduced waste, improved efficiency.
Those changes do not always make headlines. Yet they determine whether projects succeed.
They also shape how Canada competes globally in the race for critical minerals.
Rasode’s perspective reflects that reality. It is less about disruption, and more about making a complex system work better.
That may be exactly what the moment requires.
Ian Biana writes for the Resource Works Accelerate team and can be reached at [email protected].
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