Overview
Funding Amount
$140 Million
Funding Type
Grant
Area of Focus
Manufacturing Capacity
Eligible Uses
The facility established shall-- (A) provide environmental benefits through use of feedstock derived from acid mine drainage, mine waste, or other deleterious material; (B) separate mixed rare earth oxides into pure oxides of each rare earth element; (C) refine rare earth oxides into rare earth metals; and (D) provide for separation of rare earth oxides and refining into rare earth metals at a single site.
Recipients
Academic Institutions.
Period of Availability
Available until expended.
Funding Source
Section 40205 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) amended Section 7001 of the Energy Act of 2020 (42 U.S.C. 13344) and directs the establishment of a rare earth demonstration facility that will include a full-scale integrated rare earth element extraction and separation facility and refinery. This grant is in coordination with the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM). Additionally, Section 41003 (b) of the BIL identifies related efforts for rare earth minerals security.
Funding Details and Announcements
This grant is funded by BIL 40205 as well as BIL 41003(b).
The selected projects will study how they can extract critical minerals from coal mine waste streams as the first of two project phases.
- The University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, North Dakota) will complete a study to recover and refine rare earth elements and critical minerals from North Dakota lignite mine wastes. The project aims to advance technologies that can enable a cost-competitive, environmentally sensitive process to produce rare earth metals and critical minerals from domestic coal waste. (Award amount: $7,999,999).
- West Virginia University (Morgantown, West Virginia) will complete a study for producing rare earth elements and critical minerals using acid mine drainage and mineral tailings feedstocks with at-source pollution treatment. Intermediate products will be processed to high-purity oxides, salts, or metals depending on specific market needs. (Award amount: $8,000,000)
Over a period of about 15 months, these detailed engineering and cost studies will identify risks and costs, and will solidify plans for developing economically viable processes to extract, separate, and produce rare earth elements and critical minerals from the nation’s vast quantities of mining wastes that won’t be harmful to the environment. Following completion of the studies and a period of technical review, these projects will have the opportunity to apply for Phase II funding, and one will be selected for construction and operation of the demonstration-scale facility.
FEB 14, 2022
Request for Information
DE-FOA-0002686
NOV 9, 2022
Funding Opportunity Announcement
DE-FOA-0002618
NOV 21, 2022
Full Application Due
APR 4, 2023
Selections Announced
SUMMER 2024
Next Milestone – Studies Conclude
Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility - Notice of Intent
MESC intends to issue a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) of up to $135 million to enhance domestic supply chains for rare earth elements (REEs). The goal of this initiative is to reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources of REEs by demonstrating the commercial viability of methods for domestically refining and recovering REEs from mine tailings, deleterious material, and waste streams. An academic partner is required as a part of the project team and an award requires a cost-share of at least 50% by the recipient.
.AUG 13, 2025
Notice of Intent
DE-FOA-0003586
News
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