Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday announced $1 billion in federal funding opportunities to improve domestic mining and production of critical minerals to lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign suppliers. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
The Energy Department will offer up to $1 billion to support mining and processing of critical minerals and manufacturing technologies in the United States.
The department will issue notices of funding opportunities for critical minerals procurement in accordance with President Donald Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order.
“For too long, the United States has relied on foreign actors to supply and process the critical materials that are essential to modern life and our national security,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a news release on Wednesday.
“The Energy Department will play a leading role in reshoring the processing of critical materials and expanding our domestic supply of these indispensable resources,” Wright said.
The Energy Department identified five areas and the total available funding amounts for each.
As much as $50 million is available through the department’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office to support improvements in the domestic rare-earth magnet supply chain and the refining and alloying of gallium, gallium nitride, germanium and silicon carbide for use in semiconductors.
That fund also will support cost-competitive technologies for direct lithium extraction and separation, and the development of critical-material separation technologies that enable the production of useful products from scrap and byproducts.
The Energy Department’s Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Office will offer up to $250 million to support the production of mineral byproducts from existing industrial operations.
The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains is offering up to $135 million to improve domestic production of rare earth minerals to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign suppliers.
The MESC also is funding up to $500 million to expand the nation’s critical mineral and materials processing and related battery manufacturing and recycling, including. lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, aluminum and other minerals.
Another $40 million will help to pay for the recovery of critical minerals from industrial wastewater.
The Energy Department’s announcement does not mention China, which is restricting the supply of critical minerals to Western defense contractors.
More than 80,000 parts in weapons used by the Defense Department rely on critical minerals supplies that China controls, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 3.
