U.S. Department of Energy Selects 17 Mining Technology Projects for $29.5 Million as Critical-Minerals Strategy Moves Toward the Mine Itself

Highlights

• DOE awarded $29.5M across 17 projects at 12 National Laboratories targeting exploration, ore sorting, beneficiation, and in-situ extraction of critical minerals.
• Ames Laboratory and Argonne receive direct rare-earth funding, with acoustic sorting tech and rotating packed-bed recovery from coal ash and tailings.
• The initiative is part of a broader DOE strategy that includes a prior $73M round and $45.7M for pilot-scale rare-earth processing projects.
• Analysts note the portfolio remains weighted toward mining and beneficiation, while downstream gaps in separation, metals, and magnet manufacturing persist.
• REEx argues the U.S. must connect lab technologies to commercial mines, separators, and magnet makers to build a true critical-mineral ecosystem.