What began as a classroom commercialization project at Cal State San Bernardino has evolved into a growing startup attracting funding, national recognition and industry attention.

Since competing in the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition under the name Carmine Minerals, CSUSB Master of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MSEI) students Raymond Moorehead Jr. and Jacob Estrada have launched BluCore Minerals, a startup focused on extracting lithium and other valuable minerals from wastewater streams.

Since its formation, the company has secured more than $32,000 in non-dilutive funding, expanded its network through national accelerator programs and continued advancing its technology. Both Moorehead and Estrada are graduating from CSUSB this spring with their MSEI degrees.

BluCore Minerals emerged after Moorehead made the difficult decision to separate from the original Carmine Minerals team following the Rice Business Plan Competition. Moorehead then invited Estrada to join him as cofounder of BluCore Minerals. Estrada had previously been helping behind the scenes with customer discovery and pitch preparation. Together, the pair built the company and began gaining traction quickly over the past year.

Among the company’s early milestones was receiving a $5,000 award through the Department of Energy’s EnergyTech University Prize competition. Moorehead said the funding helped transform BluCore Minerals from an idea into an official company.

“That expedited the company – the logo, the name, and we registered as an LLC,” he said.

Today, BluCore Minerals is focused on developing technology that extracts lithium from wastewater produced by desalination plants, geothermal facilities, oil and gas operations, and sewage treatment systems. Instead of allowing mineral-rich brine wastewater to be discarded, the company aims to recover valuable materials before the water is disposed of.

“Lithium is used for our phones, for our batteries, for our electric vehicles,” Moorehead said. “So that’s what we’re focusing on. We’re essentially taking value out of waste.”

Moorehead said the market potential is substantial. Based on the company’s estimates, approximately 1.4 trillion gallons of wastewater are discarded annually in the United States, containing enough recoverable lithium to produce roughly 400,000 electric vehicle batteries each year. While lithium remains the company’s primary focus because of its role in batteries, electric vehicles and energy storage, Moorehead said BluCore Minerals’ technology may also be used to recover other valuable minerals from wastewater streams, including magnesium, uranium and sodium.

The technology itself was developed by Kimberley Cousins, CSUSB professor of chemistry and biochemistry and director of the Center for Advanced Functional Materials, whose liquid-to-liquid extraction process demonstrated successful lithium extraction in the lab. BluCore Minerals is now working to scale that process into a larger prototype capable of handling industrial volumes of water.

According to Moorehead, the startup’s approach differs from many competitors because it focuses specifically on wastewater streams rather than traditional mining or natural brine lakes. The process also requires significantly less energy and water than many existing lithium extraction methods.

“What makes this a bit different and unique is that we’re able to use 75% less water and 50% less energy because our process has less steps,” he said. “We just go straight to the lithium.”

The company has also continued building momentum through startup accelerator programs and pitch competitions. BluCore Minerals recently completed the gBeta Inland Empire accelerator through gener8tor, where the team initiated its first official pilot discussion with a small-scale desalination water treatment plant as part of its ongoing customer discovery and early commercialization efforts.

The startup was also selected for VentureWell’s E-Team Pioneer program, which supports student-led innovation ventures and included a $5,000 grant and workshop experience in Boston.

In April, BluCore Minerals earned a $10,000 Innovation Prize at Mississippi State University’s Startup Summit competition.

While the startup continues pursuing grants, accelerator opportunities and investor support, Moorehead said developing a working prototype remains the company’s biggest priority and focus. “Our biggest hurdle right now is funding,” he said. “We have to get funding to be able to afford it.”

Moorehead credits CSUSB’s MSEI program with helping prepare him and Estrada for entrepreneurship by emphasizing execution, customer discovery and real-world experience. The cohort-based structure of the program also stood out to him.

“It almost felt like I was at a private school for the last two years,” Moorehead said. “You have direct access to your professors, they all care about you, they really want you to succeed.”

Although both Moorehead and Estrada are graduating this spring, BluCore Minerals is continuing to pursue major opportunities. The company is currently preparing an application for a Department of Energy grant supporting lithium extraction technologies.

For Moorehead, one of the biggest lessons from the MSEI program, as well as from building BluCore Minerals, is that successful entrepreneurship begins with solving a real problem – advice he would share with aspiring entrepreneurs.

“Find a problem that you can solve, verify that people will pay for it, and that’s where you succeed,” he said.