Department of Energy to promote new processes for extracting critical raw materials.
The United States wants to become further independent of raw material imports and rely more on domestic mining. As part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Wednesday that it will provide $150 million for cost-effective and environmentally friendly processes for producing and processing raw materials domestically.
The investment is intended, among other things, to support research and development of new technologies to provide the critical minerals needed for the energy transition. Support will be provided for the extraction of raw materials from diverse sources like recycled materials, mine and industrial waste or the exploration of new critical minerals.
To expand domestic supplies of raw materials, the DOE recently provided funding to extract rare earths from coal mining residues.
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