The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation has announced a $75 million investment for five projects recovering critical minerals and materials from coal and coal-based feedstocks.
The five projects selected for the Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion – Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities funding opportunity will support the development of pilot-scale facilities at their respective industrial sites.
These facilities will produce market-ready critical materials, including rare earth elements, and other value-added minerals such as germanium, gallium, and aluminum.
DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory will manage the five selected projects under Topic Area 1: Mines & Metals Pilots—Coal-Based Industry.
The five selected projects are:
- University of North Dakota (Headquarters: Grand Forks, North Dakota)
- Valor Metals, Inc. (Headquarters: New York, New York)
- CONSOL Innovations, LLC (Headquarters: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania)
- American Resources Corporation (Headquarters: Fishers, Indiana)
- Peabody Energy Corporation (Headquarters: St. Louis, Missouri)
Selections under Topic Area 2: Mines & Metals Pilots—All Industries will be announced at a later date.
“American industrial facilities have the potential to produce valuable critical materials from coal and coal byproducts,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy (EERE) Audrey Robertson. “By investing in these facilities, we can increase domestic critical materials production and help mitigate the financial risk of commercial deployment.”
The DOE is focusing on driving domestic sources of rare Earth minerals
These selections stem from DOE’s August 2025 announcement of nearly $1 billion to advance and scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals and materials supply chains.
The announcement advances the Trump Administration’s efforts to strengthen the U.S. coal sector, including nearly $700 million recently announced for coal infrastructure and operations, and reflects a broader commitment to unlock the value of coal and coal-based feedstocks as domestic sources of critical minerals and materials.
The news follows the recent announcement from the Office of Nuclear Energy to explore ways to convert nearly 20 metric tons of surplus plutonium into usable nuclear fuel or research materials.
