Our Team

Andre Zeitoun is the Founder and CEO of Ionic Mineral Technologies, a Utah-based company commercializing one of the world’s most significant critical mineral discoveries. With a professional background spanning Wall Street boardrooms to underground mines, Andre connects the worlds of high-level finance and complex advanced material development. He is currently spearheading the 13,000-acre Silicon Ridge district, home to one of the only deposits globally confirmed to contain 16+ extractable critical minerals and rare earth elements within a single, abundant feedstock.

Recognized by Fast Company as one of “North America’s Next Big Things in Tech,” Ionic MT is transforming this unique halloysite-hosted, polymetallic deposit into America’s independent domestic supply chain. By recovering high-value metals essential to  semiconductors, energy storage, and national defense — with alumina as a major co-product — Ionic MT is building a vertically integrated platform anchored by a permitted mining site and an operational 84,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Provo.

Andre is proving that the critical minerals America urgently needs can — and will —come from Utah.

Dr. Shane Porzio is Chief Operating Officer of Ionic Mineral Technologies, leveraging 30+ years of leadership in operations, R&D, commercial strategy and execution, and executive management. He previously served as CEO of Profile Products LLC, Global SVP at Vantage Specialty Chemicals, and spent over two decades at BASF in senior executive roles, including leading the global Kaolin Minerals business. Shane is an authentic, inspirational and seasoned leader, tenacious in the face of adversity, but adaptive, bold and entrepreneurial.

He holds a Ph.D. in Polymer Science (University of Akron), an MBA (Wake Forest University), and a B.A. in Chemistry and Anthropology (Beloit College). He is fluent in five languages and brings a deep commitment to innovation, customer and operational excellence, and the triple bottom line. 

Betty Lankry brings extensive international experience in events, marketing, media, and business development to Ionic Mineral Technologies. For decades, Betty has led events and supported media productions across Europe, North America (primarily NYC, Miami and LA), as well as South America. Betty co-founded Prisma Artists, a global booking agency, and has worked for brands including MTV, Royal Elastics, Prospect Park production company. Betty studied the Business of Entertainment at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Rajan Patel serves as Head of Engineering, leading process and product development at Ionic MT, directing the scale-up of the company’s vertically integrated critical minerals platform. He oversees the commercialization of rare earth extraction, high-purity alumina, nano-silicon, and advanced battery materials. Previously, as a core member of Group14 Technologies and a researcher for Fortune 500 partners at PNNL, Patel scaled silicon-carbon manufacturing from gram-scale R&D to commercial production. He led the development of multiple product variations and established robust manufacturing blueprints. A Ph.D. chemical engineer with technology acquired by Forge Nano, 25+ peer-reviewed articles and over 19 patents, he is currently operationalizing the nation's unique fully domestic, mine-to-market supply chain.

Preston Colledge is the Director of Mining Operations at Ionic Mineral Technologies. Preston holds an extensive background in excavation, geology, and scaling-up mining operations. Previously, Preston was a Researcher at Utah Valley State University where he developed various research proposals including one for using magnetic anomalies in Earth’s total magnetic field to locate placer gold deposits. Preston received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and Earth Science from Utah Valley University.