The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s (FECM’s) Division of Minerals Sustainability is advancing a research, development, and demonstration portfolio geared toward increasing the domestic production and processing of critical minerals and materials in the United States. These efforts have a central role in helping the nation build a clean energy economy and safeguard national security.
The mission of FECM’s Division of Minerals Sustainability (the Division) is focused on promoting an environmentally and economically sustainable critical minerals and materials resource recovery industry in the United States.
The Division is working to support the nation’s transition to a carbon-free economy and support a domestic clean energy manufacturing industry through the:
- Development of technology for characterization and assessment of domestic critical minerals and materials from secondary and unconventional sources, including coal, coal wastes, acid mine drainage, oil and gas produced waters, and hard rock mine tailings;
- Development of advanced resource extraction, processing, extractive metallurgical, and refining technologies; and
- Evaluation of the technical and economic potential to co-produce critical minerals and high-value carbon products from coal and coal wastes.
FECM works to achieve these goals through engagement with industry, academia, technology developers, nongovernmental organizations, communities, and other stakeholders.
Programs and Initiatives
CARBON ORE RARE EARTH AND CRITICAL MINERALS (CORE-CM) INITIATIVE
The Minerals Sustainability Division has established the Carbon Ore Rare Earth and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative to help address the feasibility of recovering, extracting, separating, purifying, and refining significant quantities of rare earth elements and other critical minerals and materials. The CORE-CM Initiative seeks to:
- Build broad-based regional coalition teams, including tribal nations and local communities;
- Investigate regional resources (e.g., materials, facilities, infrastructure, workforce), opportunities, and challenges;
- Catalyze regional economic growth and job creation, while addressing legacy wastes and environmental justice; and
- Enable production of rare earth elements, critical minerals, and high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products across 13 regions of interest, all falling into active coal regions that are impacted by the energy transition.
ADVANCED CRITICAL MATERIALS EXTRACTION PROGRAM
The Minerals Sustainability Division is establishing an Advanced Critical Materials Extraction program that will help develop technologies to substantially decrease the environmental and community impacts of mining by using a more surgical approach. This program will work with experts in drilling, geophysics, chemistry, biology, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other fields to develop technologies that enable precision extraction of critical materials from deep underground without the need for digging giant pits, sending people underground, or significantly impacting the land, water, and air in local communities.
CRITICAL MATERIALS COLLABORATIVE
By providing a co-chair to DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative, FECM’s Minerals Sustainability Division supports efforts to align, grow, and coordinate funding for the innovation ecosystem for critical materials research throughout the United States, with the goal of accelerating deployment of secure domestic critical material supply chains.
FECM Resources
- Critical Minerals & Materials Matchmaker (CM3)
- Infographic: Critical Minerals
- Fact Sheet: Division of Minerals Sustainability
- Report: Domestic Wastes and Byproducts: A Resource for Critical Material Supply Chains
- Report: Recovery of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Materials from Coal and Coal Byproducts
- Report: Availability and Estimate of Resources of Cobalt in Pennsylvania
- Report: Developing a Domestic Supply of Critical Minerals and Materials
- Report: Producing Domestic Sources of Critical Minerals to Support a Clean Energy Economy
- Q&A with Grant Bromhal: United States Critical Minerals Sustainability
Last Updated: January 17, 2025