U.S. Department of Energy Opens Legacy Critical-Mineral Inventories for Potential Industry Reuse

Highlights

• DOE issued a September 18 Expression of Interest asking industry how legacy materials across the federal nuclear complex could re-enter U.S. supply chains.
• Paducah, Kentucky holds roughly 8,000 tons of aluminum and 2,000 tons of copper, but much carries surficial uranium contamination requiring decontamination.
• Utah's Moab tailings pile contains 16.2 million tons with confirmed vanadium occurrence, yet no established grade, resource estimate, or recovery factor exists.
• Private partners would bear full responsibility for extraction and reprocessing costs; this is not a funding opportunity or federal procurement commitment.
• REEx views the initiative as a resource-recovery experiment, not a confirmed mineral reserve, pending characterization, metallurgy, and economic scrutiny.