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Simbol Mining is securing $6.7 million in a series A round led by MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and Firelake Capital.

The start-up plans to extract lithium carbonate for making lithium-based batteries for electric cars and consumer electronics. Simbol Mining has set the bold goal of meeting within 10 years one-fourth of global demand for the compound, which could become a $1.5 billion market by 2015.

The company describes its process as waste-free because it would mine commodity metals that geothermal power production gush up in salty water to the earth’s surface from 10,000 feet underground.

“With the closure of this new financing we can complete development of the processes needed to produce lithium from brines and effluent streams, in an environmentally conscious manner,” said Simbol Mining CEO Luka Erceg in a statement.

He co-founded the company with engineering director John Conley as both pursued MBAs at Rice University in 2006. They recruited former geochemists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The Cleantech Forum February in San Francisco named the Houston-based start-up the most promising technology at the show.