DOE Invests Over $32 Million to Increase Efficiency of U.S. Critical Minerals Production Through the Co-Manufacture of Value-Added Products

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) today announced $32.75 million for 12 projects that will advance cost effective and environmentally responsible processes to produce and refine critical minerals and materials here in the United States. The funding, provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, focuses on projects that will develop value-added products, such as graphite or building materials, from feedstocks such as mining waste streams that also contain viable levels of critical minerals and materials. The manufacture of these co-products can improve the economic feasibility of domestically producing critical minerals and materials from these same feedstocks to reduce our dependence on offshore supplies. These projects will help safeguard our national security and build a clean energy and industrial economy, while creating good-paying jobs and supporting communities across the country that historically have depended on mining and energy production.

“Building reliable and affordable critical mineral and material supply chains is essential to deploying the technologies needed for national defense and to support low-carbon U.S. energy production, manufacturing, and transport,” said Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “Through DOE’s strategic investments in projects that help improve the economics of domestic materials production through the manufacture of valuable co-products, we are creating good-paying jobs, increasing U.S. competitiveness, reducing our import reliance, and strengthening our national security and energy independence.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, more than 95% of the U.S. demand for rare earth elements is met by foreign sources. More than 50% of most critical minerals come from foreign sources, and at least 12 critical minerals come exclusively from foreign sources.

Critical Material Innovation, Efficiency, and Alternatives

The “Critical Material Innovation, Efficiency, and Alternatives” funding opportunity will provide up to $150 million over several rounds of project selections to help to build a secure, sustainable domestic supply of critical minerals from sources across the United States, including recycled materials, mine waste, industrial waste, and ore deposits. Specifically, the funding opportunity will support bench- and pilot-scale research, development, and demonstration projects to increase the robustness of domestic supply chains and reduce our reliance on foreign supply chains. The following 12 projects selected for negotiation fall under the “Value Added Products” area of interest, and are focused on developing products created from other materials that are also part of the waste streams from which critical minerals and materials are extracted:

• Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) plans to develop and demonstrate the viability of a novel continuous engineered foaming process to produce value-added carbon building materials from coal and coal waste containing critical minerals and materials.
• Loukus Technologies, Inc. (Calumet, Michigan) aims to establish a semi-continuous process for conversion of cerium oxide with low-value scrap aluminum machining chips to produce advanced aluminum-cerium alloys.
• Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colorado) plans to develop bench-scale continuous processes to produce building materials, specifically geopolymer bricks, lightweight aggregates, and ceramic tiles, from critical minerals and materials found in mine tailings. 
• Still Bright, Inc. (Newark, New Jersey) seeks develop a novel electrochemical technology to extract metal co-products from copper concentrate. 
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, California) will develop a domestic supply of lithium while co-producing up to 10 other critical and valuable metals, graphite, and Portland cement.
• University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) will establish a process to demonstrate co-production of lithium salt, potassium salt, and magnesium salt from Great Salt Lakes brine. 
• National Energy Technology Laboratory (Albany, Oregon) will define optimum parameters for chromite concentration and the extraction of platinum group elements needed to enable green hydrogen production.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) will repurpose end-of-life graphite recycled from spent lithium-ion batteries into value-added graphitic materials using innovative purification and treatment methods.
• National Energy Technology Laboratory (Albany, Oregon) will design the process of melting electrodes by electric resistance heating of slag—a by-product of the smelting process in metal extraction and refining—which contains rare earth elements in the form of oxides and/or fluorides.
• Airtronics, LLC (Tucson, Arizona) will develop efficient recycling technologies to recover critical materials, precious metals, and base metals within electronic waste.
• Mexichem Fluor Inc. (St. Gabriel, Louisiana) will demonstrate the feasibility of an efficient and sustainable process for graphite anode active material production from both graphite waste from battery recycling and mined graphite flake.
• Melt Technologies LP (Briggs, Texas) will implement a pilot facility to produce tungsten carbide products—essential for many U.S. industries—from feedstock with greater efficiency and lower cost.

A detailed list of the selected projects and funding amounts can be found here. DOE plans to make additional selections under the FOA’s remaining areas of interest at a later date. 

DOE’s selections are subject to environmental review in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act review process. DOE reserves the right to terminate award negotiations at any time for any reason.

DOE’s Broader Advancements in Critical Minerals and Materials

With the selections announced today, FECM has committed an estimated $254 million since January 2021 for projects that support critical minerals and materials exploration, resource identification, production, and processing in traditional mining and fossil fuel-producing communities across the country. 

FECM reduces emissions from fossil energy production and use and key industrial processes, while strengthening U.S. energy and critical minerals security. To learn more, visit the FECM website, sign up for FECM news announcements, and visit the National Energy Technology Laboratory website.