The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to issue nearly $1 billion in funding opportunities to strengthen and expand domestic mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies for critical minerals and materials. These initiatives, aligned with President Trump’s Executive Order on Unleashing American Energy, aim to build a secure, predictable, and cost-effective supply chain vital to U.S. energy dominance, national security, and industrial competitiveness.
DOE Secretary Chris Wright emphasized that for too long, the nation has been dependent on foreign sources for essential materials, and the department will now lead efforts to reshore processing and boost domestic supply of these resources.
Funding will be directed to several major initiatives. The Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator will provide up to $50 million to mature technologies for rare-earth magnets, semiconductor materials, lithium extraction, and co-production processes from industrial byproducts. The Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion program will offer around $250 million to pilot mineral byproduct recovery at industrial facilities, helping reduce technical and financial risks.
A Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility, backed by up to $135 million, will aim to reduce reliance on foreign REE sources by refining and recovering these materials domestically from waste streams and mine tailings. Meanwhile, the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program will allocate up to $500 million to expand U.S. capacity for processing, recycling, and manufacturing battery-related critical minerals, requiring significant cost-sharing by recipients.
In addition, ARPA-E will soon announce projects under its RECOVER program, which invests $40 million in technologies to extract critical minerals from industrial wastewater. This approach seeks to supplement traditional mining with resource recovery from waste streams, tapping into overlooked domestic sources.
These coordinated funding efforts are designed to reduce U.S. dependence on imports, strengthen domestic supply chains, and support sustainable economic growth in strategic sectors.
