My name is Robert Karas, the owner of Rowow LLC where we’ve developed a fully electrochemical, closed-loop process for recovering precious metals.

As I learned more about the industry, several major gaps became clear:
There are few viable alternatives to existing methods, many of which generate significant pollution and toxic waste.
Most processes struggle with platinum group metals often focusing only on gold and silver.
Many conventional approaches are expensive and/or low-yield, sometimes leaving substantial value behind (even missing large portions of the gold).

In the United States, there’s essentially no robust platinum group metal industry. Getting material analyzed, refined, and sold can be slow, costly, or simply not feasible. Often requiring overseas shipment and long turnaround times.
Seeing both the technical advantages and the scale of the problem, I realized this technology could have far greater impact than I could ever achieve alone. That’s why our intention is to open-source our work.
github.com/Rowow1/Open-sourced-off-the-shelf-ion-exchange-membrane

Every week, new headlines highlight the environmental damage caused by various industries such as manufacturing and mining:
Tailing creating pollution
Dam failures contaminating waterways
Mercury from illegal operations harming ecosystems
At the end of it all, communities suffer the consequences.

In response, many governments have imposed strict restrictions or outright bans, largely because there hasn’t been a practical, cleaner alternative.

We believe sustainable, closed-loop extraction changes that equation. It can unlock entirely new markets: recovering valuable metals from legacy waste and dump sites, and enabling development in areas previously deemed too environmentally risky using traditional methods.

Our Story

The idea began when I was asked by a friend to process a high-grade gold ore. Like many first-time refiners, I started with acid leaching using aqua regia — learning mostly through trial, error, and plenty of mistakes. The wall I kept hitting: I couldn’t reliably precipitate the gold.

The breakthrough came when I replaced chemical precipitation with electrolysis. One key upgrade: replacing nitric acid with sodium chlorate — a stronger oxidizer capable of dissolving rhodium, iridium, and other platinum group metals, while being far more sustainable because it can be produced from salt.

The Industry Gaps We’re Solving

Our Open-Source Mission

We believe that breakthrough technology only reaches its full potential when it’s accessible to everyone. That’s why we’re open-sourcing our electrochemical research — sharing designs, results, and setbacks transparently on GitHub and YouTube.