Critical Minerals Recovery: US DOE Funds Nine Projects
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy has announced plans to invest more than US$160m into recovering critical minerals.
The organisation says it will focus on recovering key elements including scandium, copper, antimony and rare earth elements by funding nine projects.
This funding is part of DOE’s wider investment plan, designating US$1bn to scale mining, processing and manufacturing technologies across the US critical minerals supply chain.
It aims to recover critical minerals, materials and other valuable byproducts from industrial feedstocks from both bench and pilot scale sites.
Audrey Robertson, the US Assistant Secretary of Energy, says: “By investing in these facilities, we can de-risk commercial scale production technologies to grow new economic and manufacturing opportunities.”
The nine US critical minerals projects
The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory will oversee each of the nine selected projects.
All of the projects will be managed under Topic Area 2 of the Mines and Metals Capacity Expansion, but will be split into two categories.
Four of the locations have been placed under Topic Area 2a: Mines and Metals Pilots for all industries with prior bench-scale facilities.
The four projects are:
- Anactisis Inc. in Pennsylvania
- Still Bright Inc. in New Jersey
- Nusano Inc. in Utah
- SiTration Inc. in Massachusetts.
According to the DOE, the goal for each 2a project is to advance the technology readiness level of their process four or five to seven.
This would see the system move from the laboratory to prototype stage.
The other five projects are under Topic Area 2b: Mines & Metals Pilots for all industries with prior pilot scale facilities.
These five projects are:
- Thompson Creek Metals Company USA in Pennsylvania
- Felix Gold Alaska Treasure Creek Inc. in Alaska
- DISA Technologies Inc. in Wyoming
- Alcoa USA Corp. in Pennsylvania
- Trigg Minerals in New Jersey.
The organisation says the 2b locations are expected to increase technology readiness levels from six or seven to seven or eight.
This will allow each project to prepare for pre-commercial demonstration.
Critical minerals in US defence
This US$164m in funding follows two previous mineral investments from the DOE.
In June 2026, around US$134m was allocated to kickstart the Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility Program in two projects.
The following month saw another US$75m be granted across five projects to accelerate mineral recovery from coal-based feedstocks.
During the recent US$164m investment , Audrey said that each investment provides the US with a “vital opportunity to produce critical materials necessary for our energy, defence and economic security”.
The US Department of War agreed US$25mInvestment with ReElement Technologies to expand the nation’s critical minerals refining capacity in July 2026.
During the announcement, the company revealed this investment would help secure “domestic access to materials essential for advanced defense systems, aerospace components, and secure communications”.
According to the International Energy Agency, tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, indium and molybdenum are the primary minerals in military defence.
