The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation will bolster domestic supply chains for rare earth elements (REEs) through recovering and refining materials from waste streams.
Two projects have received $134m in funding from the US Department of Energy to strengthen domestic rare earth supply chains and reduce reliance on foreign sources.
“To achieve energy independence, the United States needs to find value in overlooked resources,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy (EERE) 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.”
70% of America’s imported REEs come from China
REEs such as praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium are key components in advanced manufacturing, defence systems, and high-performance magnets used in power generation and electric motors.
America overwhelmingly imports REEs from China, as well as in lesser quantities from Malaysia, Japan and Estonia. China produces over 90% of the world’s rare earth metals and after being subjected to punitive tariffs by the Trump Administration, expanded its own export restrictions on minerals, further driving costs up.
The US has one rare earth mine in California, the Mountain Pass mine. Whilst resources here are rich, nearly all of materials extracted are sent to China for processing.
Two projects have already been selected for award negotiations:
Colorado School of Mines
This project will design, construct, commission, and operate an REE Demonstration Facility near the Gramercy alumina refinery in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. The Colorado School of Mines will partner with ElementUSA, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Principal Mineral, and Rare Earth Technologies Inc., on this facility, which 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.
Phoenix Tailings
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, such as mine tailings, electronic waste, and other waste materials.
Demonstrating this process will establish a new commercial pathway for 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 will manage these funding opportunities through its Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility Program.