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ContactCritical Minerals and Materials
The Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Program aims to rebuild U.S. leadership in extraction and processing technologies for the production of critical minerals and materials (CMM) that include rare earth elements (REE), critical minerals (originally defined by the U.S. Geological Survey [USGS]), and materials deemed critical by the Department of Energy (DOE), from unconventional resources and secondary byproduct sources to support an economical, environmentally benign, and geopolitically sustainable U.S. domestic supply chain.
Unconventional CMM resources include any resource from a geologic or secondary byproduct host that is distinctive from the mechanisms resulting in conventional, established deposits. Unconventional CMM can be sourced from in situ geologic deposits or from secondary byproducts of anthropogenic processes. These sources require revised or new methods and models to characterize and assess that focus on the unique source and temporal controls resulting in these deposits.
Examples of unconventional and secondary byproduct sources include:
- Sedimentary deposits such as coal, black shale, tonsteins (clay-altered volcanic ash), coal underclays, and marine phosphates.
- Secondary byproducts derived from mining and fossil-energy related waste streams such as produced water, coal fly ash, acid mine drainage, and alloy production residues.
The NETL CMM Program is focused on the following goals:
- Validate the technical and economic feasibility of domestic small pilot-scale facilities to produce high-purity CMM from carbon ore and coal-based resources.
- Produce 1–3 tonnes/day of high-purity mixed rare earth oxides/salts in domestic demonstration-scale facilities and refine to metals or alternative user-specified products as required for use in the CMM supply chain using coal-based and alternative resources as feedstock materials.
- Perform a regional assessment and production of CMM and novel high-value, nonfuel carbon-based products covering the entire United States.
Prospecting
The Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Program portfolio consists of a diverse set of domestic feedstock materials that includes carbon ore, coal refuse, clay/shale over/under-burden, aqueous effluents as acid mine drainage (AMD), associated solids and precipitates resulting from AMD treatment, and power generation ash. Chemical analyses of these materials are publicly accessible in NETL’s CMM Energy Data eXchange (EDX) database.
Processing
Conventional and advanced extraction, separation, recovery, and purification process research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) is the underlying basis of NETL’s CMM Program.
Production
Achievements have resulted in the design, construction, and operation of three first-of-a-kind, small pilot-scale facilities producing small quantities (e.g., approximately 100 g/day) of greater than 90% (greater than 900,000 parts per million [ppm]) high-purity mixed rare earth oxides/salts from coal-based resources using conventional physical beneficiation and hydrometallurgical (chemical separation) processes.
Resource Characterization
The Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative funds coalition teams focused on addressing the upstream & midstream CM supply chain and downstream manufacturing of high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products, to accelerate the realization of full potential for carbon ores and critical minerals within the U.S basins. Teams will 1) assess each basin’s unique characteristics: sources/resources, infrastructure, industrial and technology needs, and reclamation and remediation potential; 2) facilitate the establishment of public-private partnerships; and 3) perform stakeholder outreach and education.
News: Latest Edition of NETL Edge Highlights NETL Progress on Creating Robust Domestic Supplies of Critical Minerals Required for a Clean Energy Future
Learn how NETL is assessing the economic viability of recovering rare earth elements (REEs) from unconventional feedstocks like coal and coal waste; discovering platinum group minerals from ultramafic rocks; using the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to start up the first wave of production facilities for critical minerals; and much more!
News: NETL Advances Revolutionary Technologies to Extract Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals from North Dakota Lignite
Learn how NETL is assessing the economic viability of recovering rare earth elements (REEs) from unconventional feedstocks like coal and coal waste; discovering platinum group minerals from ultramafic rocks; using the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to start up the first wave of production facilities for critical minerals; and much more!
Funding Opportunity Announcement: Biden-Harris Administration Announces $30 Million to Increase Domestic Supply of Critical Minerals
In support of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy announced up to $30 million to help lower the costs of the onshore production of rare earths and other critical minerals and materials from domestic coal-based resources.
