The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled plans to allocate nearly $1 billion to enhance the production and supply of critical minerals and materials within the United States. Over half of this funding will be directed towards battery materials processing, manufacturing, and recycling.
The DOE’s initiative aligns with President Trump’s Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” which was issued on his first day in office. This directive instructed the Secretary of Energy to ensure critical mineral projects, including their processing, receive consideration for federal support.
Although President Trump’s energy policies have largely pivoted towards fossil fuels, the DOE’s announcement underscores a focus on developing domestic supply chains. This support for critical materials and minerals is expected to benefit sectors involved in energy transition and cleantech.
The DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) plans to issue a notice of funding opportunities (NOFO) of up to $500 million. This will aim to expand U.S. critical mineral and materials processing, as well as derivative battery manufacturing and recycling. The NOFO will target demonstration and commercial facilities that process, recycle, or utilise traditional battery minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, and aluminium. It also includes other minerals contained within commercially available batteries, such as rare earth elements.
Further planned funding opportunities outlined by the DOE include $250 million for industrial facilities capable of producing valuable mineral byproducts from existing processes, up to $135 million to strengthen domestic supply chains for rare earth elements, up to $50 million for the Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Accelerator programme to advance critical materials processing technologies towards commercialisation, and $40 million for an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) programme to develop technologies for recovering critical minerals from industrial wastewater.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright stated: “For too long, the United States has relied on foreign actors to supply and process the critical materials that are essential to modern life and our national security. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the Energy Department will play a leading role in reshoring the processing of critical materials and expanding our domestic supply of these indispensable resources.”
