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DOE Awards $75 Million to Five Projects for Critical Mineral Recovery from Coal Feedstocks
WASHINGTON – On July 2, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced plans to award $75 million to five projects that aim to pull rare‑earth elements and other critical materials out of coal and coal‑based feedstocks. The funding is part of a nearly $1 billion push to fortify domestic supply chains for minerals essential to advanced technologies and national security.
The award comes from the DOE Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, which is focused on accelerating the development of technologies that can extract critical materials from non‑traditional sources. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the five projects under the Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion – Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities opportunity. NETL will oversee the design, construction, and operation of pilot facilities that demonstrate the feasibility of extracting minerals such as rare earths, gallium, germanium, and aluminum from coal and its byproducts.
The five projects selected for award negotiations are:
• University of North Dakota – The university will lead a pilot facility at the Falkirk coal mine near Underwood, North Dakota. The project will test processes that recover critical minerals from the mine’s coal and associated waste streams.
• Valor Metals – The startup is commercializing an electrochemical liquid‑liquid extraction (e‑LLE) technology that can separate metals, including rare earths, from coal byproducts and other feedstocks. Valor’s process uses an electric current to drive selective binding of metals to a liquid phase, reducing the need for high‑temperature smelting.
• CONSOL Innovations – A subsidiary of Core Natural Resources, CONSOL will build a pilot‑scale plant in Pennsylvania that extracts rare earth elements and other critical minerals from coal waste tailings. The facility will evaluate the scalability of the extraction chemistry and the economics of recovering minerals from tailings that are normally discarded.
• American Resources – The company will apply its proprietary process technology to pilot a commercial‑scale recovery of critical minerals from coal and coal‑based feedstocks. The project will assess the integration of the technology into existing industrial operations and its potential to generate revenue streams from waste materials.
• Peabody Energy – Peabody’s “Wyoming Rare Earths Project” will explore the extraction of critical minerals from coal byproducts within its Powder River Basin operations. The project will investigate the feasibility of integrating mineral recovery into the company’s existing coal processing infrastructure.
These projects are part of a broader DOE strategy to scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals supply chain. The agency has also committed $134 million to the Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility Program, which focuses on recovering rare earths from mining and industrial waste streams. According to the DOE, the goal is to reduce dependence on foreign sources and to mitigate the financial risk associated with commercial deployment of critical‑material technologies.
DOE’s Assistant Secretary of Energy, Audrey Robertson, said the initiative “has the potential to increase domestic critical materials production and help mitigate the financial risk of commercial deployment.” The five projects remain subject to award negotiations, and the $75 million is not a final funding commitment. If the negotiations conclude, the projects will receive the funds to move forward with pilot construction and testing.
At present, the projects are in the planning and negotiation phase. The DOE will finalize award agreements in the coming weeks, after which the selected partners will begin construction of pilot facilities. The outcome of these pilots will inform future investment decisions and could shape the trajectory of the U.S. critical‑materials industry over the next decade.
The award comes from the DOE Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, which is focused on accelerating the development of technologies that can extract critical materials from non‑traditional sources. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the five projects under the Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion – Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities opportunity. NETL will oversee the design, construction, and operation of pilot facilities that demonstrate the feasibility of extracting minerals such as rare earths, gallium, germanium, and aluminum from coal and its byproducts.
The five projects selected for award negotiations are:
• University of North Dakota – The university will lead a pilot facility at the Falkirk coal mine near Underwood, North Dakota. The project will test processes that recover critical minerals from the mine’s coal and associated waste streams.
• Valor Metals – The startup is commercializing an electrochemical liquid‑liquid extraction (e‑LLE) technology that can separate metals, including rare earths, from coal byproducts and other feedstocks. Valor’s process uses an electric current to drive selective binding of metals to a liquid phase, reducing the need for high‑temperature smelting.
• CONSOL Innovations – A subsidiary of Core Natural Resources, CONSOL will build a pilot‑scale plant in Pennsylvania that extracts rare earth elements and other critical minerals from coal waste tailings. The facility will evaluate the scalability of the extraction chemistry and the economics of recovering minerals from tailings that are normally discarded.
• American Resources – The company will apply its proprietary process technology to pilot a commercial‑scale recovery of critical minerals from coal and coal‑based feedstocks. The project will assess the integration of the technology into existing industrial operations and its potential to generate revenue streams from waste materials.
• Peabody Energy – Peabody’s “Wyoming Rare Earths Project” will explore the extraction of critical minerals from coal byproducts within its Powder River Basin operations. The project will investigate the feasibility of integrating mineral recovery into the company’s existing coal processing infrastructure.
These projects are part of a broader DOE strategy to scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals supply chain. The agency has also committed $134 million to the Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility Program, which focuses on recovering rare earths from mining and industrial waste streams. According to the DOE, the goal is to reduce dependence on foreign sources and to mitigate the financial risk associated with commercial deployment of critical‑material technologies.
DOE’s Assistant Secretary of Energy, Audrey Robertson, said the initiative “has the potential to increase domestic critical materials production and help mitigate the financial risk of commercial deployment.” The five projects remain subject to award negotiations, and the $75 million is not a final funding commitment. If the negotiations conclude, the projects will receive the funds to move forward with pilot construction and testing.
At present, the projects are in the planning and negotiation phase. The DOE will finalize award agreements in the coming weeks, after which the selected partners will begin construction of pilot facilities. The outcome of these pilots will inform future investment decisions and could shape the trajectory of the U.S. critical‑materials industry over the next decade.
