The US government will make available up to $150 million to advance cost-effective and environmentally responsible processes for the production and refinement of US critical minerals, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced Wednesday.
The funding provided under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed into law last year by US President Joe Biden, aims to aid in meeting the growing demand for critical minerals and materials while reducing the country’s dependence on offshore supplies.
This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will also assist the US in meeting its ambitious climate targets, as it is supported by President Biden’s ‘Investing in America’ initiative, which mobilizes historic levels of private sector investment in the country.
The FOA will also enable a step to be taken to build a secure, sustainable domestic supply of critical minerals from a broad range of sources across the country, including recycled materials, mine waste, industrial waste and ore deposits.
This action is also expected to create job opportunities and support communities across the country that historically have depended on mining and energy production, while advancing the administration’s efforts to maximize the benefits of the clean energy transition in every community.
‘The President’s ‘Investing in America’ agenda is ramping up access and use of clean energy technologies, which means increased demand for critical minerals and materials,’ US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement.
The rapid transformation of the energy sector worldwide to meet global climate goals accelerated the demand for critical minerals and materials, which are key to manufacturing clean energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.
In line with this aim, the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management had announced up to $41 million in projects that support critical mineral exploration, resource identification, production, and processing in traditional mining and fossil fuel-producing communities across the country since last year.
Despite the fact that the US Geological Survey’s National Mineral Information Center reports that the US has over 50 different critical minerals, the nation is fully dependent on foreign sources for 12 of these minerals, and more than 50% depend on foreign sources for more than 30 of them.
