The projects range from researching underexplored regions like the Northwest to evaluating the economic potential of using unconventional feedstocks.
Les Département de l'énergie des États-Unis (DOE) has allocated $45 million to fund six projects aimed at creating regional consortia for critical mineral and material supply chains. These initiatives focus on harnessing secondary and unconventional feedstocks like coal by-products and oil and gas waste to strengthen domestic mineral supplies, supporting clean energy and defense industries. The projects will involve collaborations with industry, universities, and government bodies to develop strategies for extracting valuable resources across the U.S. For example, the University of Alaska Fairbanks will team up with three state geological surveys to explore the mineral potential in the Northwest, while the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will focus on building an economic case for recovering critical materials from coal and coal waste in the Upper Midwest.
The DOD’s push symbolizes the topic of critical minerals gaining traction in the political spheres in Washington amid tensions between the U.S. and China. Also on Monday, the Department of Defense announced the setting up of a strategic materials board intended to give advice related to supply chains and stockpiles of critical and strategic materials.
A detailed list of projects funded by the DOE can be found ici.
More on unconventional sources of critical minerals: The U.S. has funded multiple projects in the past already focusing on producing critical minerals from coal-based feedstocks. Other projects range from using algues à bactéries pour transformer les déchets miniers en trésors miniers.
Photo : iStock/MingzheZhang
