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    US DOE $10M critical minerals R&D: process insights for mining engineers

    August 26, 2026|

    Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

    US DOE $10M critical minerals R&D: process insights for mining engineers

    First reported on MINING.com

    30 Second Briefing

    The US Department of Energy has awarded $10 million via the Critical Materials Innovation Hub to seven early-stage R&D projects targeting more efficient recovery and refining of rare earth elements, gallium, copper and other critical materials. Funded work includes chloride-based molten salt electrolysis for heavy rare earth production at Case Western Reserve, hydro and bio-hydrometallurgical copper extraction at Colorado School of Mines, and nanobubble–surfactant–reactive oxygen leaching of copper sulphides at the University of Arizona. FAST Metals, Indium Corporation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Illinois will trial solid-phase extraction, advanced ion-exchange resins and redox-adsorbents to recover gallium and mixed rare earth oxides from bauxite-alumina circuits, zinc refinery residues and industrial byproduct streams.

    Technical Brief

    • Three of the seven projects explicitly target gallium recovery from bauxite-alumina circuits, zinc residues, and other byproducts.
    • Case Western Reserve University’s chloride-based molten salt electrolysis aims at process intensification for heavy rare earth metals.
    • Colorado School of Mines is testing combined hydro- and bio-hydrometallurgical routes for primary copper sulphide ores.
    • University of Arizona’s leaching work couples nanobubbles, surfactants and reactive oxygen species to improve copper sulphide dissolution kinetics.
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory is applying solid-phase extraction to selectively separate gallium from zinc refinery residue streams.
    • Indium Corporation’s programme focuses on new ion-exchange resin formulations tailored to gallium in bauxite-alumina liquors.
    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is designing redox-active adsorbents for electrochemical gallium recovery from mining and end-of-life wastes.
    • FAST Metals is targeting mixed rare earth oxides and gallium from unspecified industrial residue streams, implying variable feed chemistries.
    • All seven awards sit at early-stage R&D, so scale-up performance, impurity tolerance and operating costs remain unproven.
    • Methods under test could retrofit to existing hydrometallurgical plants, adding critical-metal recovery circuits without new mine development.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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