Overview

• The DOE announced intent to issue notices of funding opportunities totaling nearly $1 billion to advance mining, processing and manufacturing of critical minerals in the United States.
• The funding is divided into five targeted pools including $500 million for battery materials, $250 million for byproduct recovery, $135 million for a rare-earth demonstration facility, $50 million for a Critical Minerals Accelerator and $40 million for the ARPA-E RECOVER wastewater program.
• Recipients must commit at least a 50 percent private cost‐share to access awards, a structure designed to attract industry investment and de‐risk commercial deployment.
• Programs cover a range of materials—lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, aluminum, gallium, germanium, silicon carbide and rare earth elements—critical for batteries, semiconductors and magnets.
• Energy Secretary Chris Wright framed the initiative as a national security and industrial strategy to reduce U.S. dependence on China’s dominant refining and processing capacity.