The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $355 million for two notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) issued by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) to expand domestic production of critical materials essential for advancing U.S. energy production, manufacturing, transportation and national defense. The first funding opportunity provides up to $275 million for American industrial facilities capable of producing valuable minerals from existing industrial and coal byproducts. The second provides up to $80 million to establish Mine of the Future proving grounds for real-world testing of next-generation mining technologies.
The first NOFO includes two focus areas for the design, construction and operation of large pilot-scale facilities to produce critical materials, including advancing and accelerating demonstration of critical material production using coal-based resources as feedstocks and industrial byproducts and wastes, which are open to all U.S. industry sectors that produce market-ready materials where industrial byproducts and/or wastes can be a source of crucially needed critical materials.
These pilots will demonstrate the feasibility of recovering critical minerals from existing American infrastructure and industrial activity, reducing waste while building new domestic supply chains for high-value materials.
FE also announced up to $80 million under the Mine of the Future – Proving Ground Initiative NOFO, which supports DOE’s broader Mine of the Future initiative to accelerate technology commercialization and increase the competitiveness of domestic mining operations. Awards made under this NOFO will not only develop mining proving grounds, but also support R&D projects that accelerate technologies past laboratory and/or bench scale to testing and demonstration in a field-scale setting, an essential step to de-risk commercial adoption of these new mining technologies.
“For too long, the USA has relied on foreign nations for the minerals and materials that power our economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “We have these resources here at home, but years of complacency have ceded America’s mining and industrial base to other nations.”
“The Mine of the Future – Proving Ground Initiative will be among the Department of Energy’s first major investments into mining technology research and development in almost four decades,” said U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fossil Energy Kyle Haustveit. “This effort will help establish the USA as the world’s leading producer and processor of non-fuel minerals—creating economic prosperity in fossil energy communities across the country while strengthening critical mineral supply chains for the USA and its allies.”
Source: www.coalage.com
