ElementUS secures almost $30 million from the Department of Defense.
The United States Department of Defense has awarded $29.9 million in Defense Production Act funding to ElementUS Minerals to build a facility in Gramercy, Louisiana, that will extract gallium and scandium from bauxite residue, an industrial waste stream. Additional development work will take place in Cedar Park, Texas. The effort is intended to make ElementUS one of the first U.S. producers of both minerals.
The move follows September’s announcement that the Defense Logistics Agency will add scandium, although not gallium, to the National Defense Stockpile, with the U.S. set to purchase 6.4 metric tons of scandium oxide over five years in a contract worth up to $40 million with Rio Tinto, the only current North American producer. Rio Tinto’s scandium operations are based in Canada, however.
Scandium, though limited in commercial use, is vital for aerospace alloys, lasers, and defense technologies, while gallium is essential for semiconductor manufacturing. Both markets are dominated by China, leaving the U.S. heavily import-dependent.
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