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Dive brief:
- According to a press release on August 13, the Ministry of Energy offers approximately $ 1 billion in budget for projects that provide the development and expansion of mining technologies, processing and production in the minerals and materials supply chains.
- The budget is due to the January executive order of President Donald Trump, who orders the Ministry of Energy to ensure federal support for important mineral projects.
- “For a long time, the United States has trusted foreign actors to prepare and process important materials for our modern life and national security,” said Energy Minister Chris Wright. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the Ministry of Energy plays an important role in changing the processing of important materials and expanding the domestic supply of these resources.”
Dive insight:
In 2023, according to a Ministry of Energy, the United States imported 100 % out of 12 of 50 critical minerals and more than 50 % of the 29 additional items. China, a US economic and political competitor, was a leading manufacturer of 29 out of 43 important minerals for which information was available.
According to the White House’s facts, “heavily depends on foreign sources, especially opposition countries, depends on foreign sources, especially enemy countries.” In the facts sheet, for example, China has recently banned the export of critical minerals with potential military applications to the United States. The ban also includes six rare metal and rare land magnets that are very important for automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors.
The Ministry of Energy plans to export NOFO budget leaflets ($ 1 billion) to help the country secure, predictable and more cost -effective than minerals and critical materials that appear to be a fundamental national security and industrial competition.
The largest proposed NOFO is the battery material processing and the production of battery and recycling and recycling program. According to the initiative, the Department of Energy Manufacturing and energy supply (Mesc) plans to publish up to $ 500 million in support of demonstrations or processing commercial facilities, recycling or using important minerals for manufactured batteries. This prize requires at least 50 % by the recipient.
The second large NOFO is the expansion of mines and metals. This $ 250 million provides financial aid for the facility with the potential to extract valuable minerals from existing industrial processes. The budget run by the Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Office is closely following the Ministry of Interior’s July statement, which could simplify laws to extract materials from mines.
The rare drama facility, another NOFO, provides up to $ 135 million to strengthen the internal supply chains for the rare elements of Earth (Rees), a specific subset of critical minerals. Mesc executes the initiative, which requires organizations to commercially show new methods for refining and recovering Rees from mine waste, harmful materials and waste flow. The project team must contain a university partner and the award needs to receive at least 50 % by the recipient.
The Ministry of Energy also announced two smaller NOFOs. One of them is called the accelerator of minerals and critical materials run by the Advanced Office of Manufacturing Materials and Technologies. It provides $ 50 million to deal with several of the favorite areas, including the rare metal supply chain processes, refining processes and important mineral alloys used in semiconductors and technologies for direct lithium extraction.
Another is the critical minerals of NOFO industrial wastewater that provides $ 40 million to develop recovery technologies for critical minerals. The Department of Energy’s advanced research agencies run the NOFO and plans to announce project choices in early autumn.
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