The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation announced $134 million for two projects that will strengthen domestic supply chains for rare earth elements (REEs). These projects will demonstrate the commercial viability of recovering and refining REEs from unconventional feedstocks, including mine tailings and electronic waste.
“To achieve energy independence, the United States needs to find value in overlooked resources,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. “By expanding our capabilities to recover and process rare earth elements from waste products, these projects will reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources and improve the resilience of our supply chains.”
The projects selected are:
- Colorado School of Mines ($67 million). This project will design, construct, commission and operate an REE demonstration facility near the Gramercy alumina refinery in St. John the Baptist Parish, La. The facility will process “red mud,” a critical mineral-rich bauxite waste product. By separating rare earth oxides and refining them into rare earth metals, the facility will demonstrate the commercial feasibility of an integrated domestic REE extraction, separation and refining process. The Colorado School of Mines will partner with ElementUSA, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Principal Mineral, and Rare Earth Technologies on this project.
- Phoenix Tailings ($66 million). This project will design, construct, commission and operate a demonstration-scale facility to produce high-purity rare earth metals from domestic industrial waste-derived feedstocks. Demonstrating this process will establish a new commercial pathway for the domestic production of heavy rare earth metals. Phoenix Tailings will partner with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Minnesota on this project.
DOE’s Manufacturing Deployment Office manages the funding opportunity through its Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility Program, which is designed to demonstrate full-scale integrated rare earth extraction and separation facilities in the United States.
Source: Department of Energy