DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation announces $134 million to bolster rare earth element supply chains

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation today 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, electronic waste, and other waste materials.

“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.”

REEs such as praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium are vital components in advanced manufacturing, defense systems, and high-performance magnets used in power generation and electric motors.

The following projects have been selected for award negotiations:

• Colorado School of Mines – St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana: This project will design, construct, commission, and operate an REE Demonstration Facility near the Gramercy alumina refinery in Louisiana. 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 Inc., on this project.

• Phoenix Tailings – Ardmore, Oklahoma: 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 domestic production of heavy rare earth metals. Phoenix Tailings will partner with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on this project.

DOE’s Manufacturing Deployment Office manages this 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.