DOE Previews $1 Billion in Forthcoming Funding Opportunities for Critical Minerals Projects and Technologies

These announcements build upon President Trump’s prior executive orders, including executive orders 14241 Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production and 14154 Unleashing American Energy. As we discuss here, both orders underscore that strengthening domestic production is an important component of broader efforts to secure mineral supply chains.

The DOE notices seek to support research and development and commercialization of innovative technologies to make the recovery, extraction, separation and processing of critical minerals more efficient; pilot facilities to demonstrate critical mineral, critical mineral byproducts and rare earth production from unconventional sources, including waste and tailings and from feedstocks from coal and other industrial facilities; and demonstrate and deploy projects in the battery material supply chain.

The DOE notices also address various market challenges and opportunities in the critical minerals supply chain. Specifically, as we discuss here, critical mineral markets are impacted by various challenges including, among others, the economic and technological challenges associated with byproduct production and production from unconventional sources, such as mine waste and tailings, and new innovations in mining, refining and recycling have the potential to advance diversification of supply chains by, among other things, increasing supply volumes, improving energy and operational efficiency and decreasing environmental impacts.

The notices are issued by or on behalf of several entities within DOE, which are focused on various stages of the supply chain ranging from moonshot R&D to applied R&D and demonstration and deployment and commercialization. Relevant DOE entities include the:

• Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
• Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management (FECM)
• Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC)

Within DOE, implementation of the various NOFOs will be coordinated through the Critical Minerals Collaborative and a working group composed of representatives from the involved DOE entities. To further federal coordination, DOE may also share information with the chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC), who can in turn share it with other agencies, consistent with President Trump’s memorandum entitled Simplifying the Funding of Energy Infrastructure and Critical Mineral and Material Projects which we discuss here.

Below we discuss the DOE notices including key anticipated areas of interest and requirements, and next steps for stakeholders across the critical-minerals ecosystem including producers, consumers, universities technology developers and investors.   

Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator
DOE, on behalf of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (an office within EERE), intends to issue a NOFO entitled Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator with up to $50 million in funding to support research and development, including innovative extraction, separation and processing technologies on both the supply and demand side (i.e., those that may reduce demand for minerals or increase supply volumes). Broadly, the NOFO is anticipated to target innovative extraction, separation and processing technologies and establish a technology maturation pipeline through supporting industry led partnerships to prototype and pilot innovation technologies proven at the bench scale. Specific types of support for chosen technologies could include “validation, benchmarking, access to national lab test beds, testing in industry relevant environments, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment.” Chosen technologies should have a path to commercialization within three to seven years.

Areas of interest may include:

• Processes in the rare earth magnet supply chain, including production from post-consumer and post-industrial secondary sources.
• Processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium and silicon carbide for use in semiconductors.
• Technologies for cost competitive direct lithium extraction and separation.
• Technologies that improve cost competitiveness of critical material separation technologies through coproduction of value-added products from byproducts and scrap.

DOE intends to award “multiple cooperative agreements” and the estimated period of performance for each award will be one to four years. DOE is compiling a Teaming Partner List intended to encourage collaboration on the NOFO among prospective applicants.  

Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program
DOE’s MESC announced its intent to issue a NOFO of up to $500 million under Section 40207 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to support battery material processing, manufacturing and recycling. The funding is anticipated to back demonstration and commercial-scale projects that process, recycle or manufacture critical materials used in battery materials such as lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, aluminum and rare earth elements.

Consistent with Section 40207 of IIJA, individual awards are anticipated to range from $50-200 million, with at least a 50% cost share required from recipients. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately 24-48 months. The anticipated NOFO follows earlier Section 40207 funding rounds in 2022 and 2023-2024, though at a lower overall funding level.

MESC encourages applicants to identify potential downstream domestic customers or offtakers. Consistent with Section 40207, priority will be given to applicants that:

• Will not use battery material supplied by or originating from a Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC), and
• Will not export recovered critical materials to a FEOC.

The NOFO specifically cited to the issued guidance in May 2024 for the definition of FEOC under Section 40207 of IIJA, available here. The NOFO provided no indication if or how forthcoming FEOC guidance under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act could affect this previously issued guidance.

Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility
DOE’s MESC announced its intent to issue a NOFO of up to $135 million for the design, construction and operation of a Rare Earth Element (REE) Demonstration Facility (Facility). The Facility will demonstrate REE production, including for extraction, separation, and refining, from unconventional feedstock sources, including “acid mine drainage, mine waste, e-waste, or other deleterious or harmful materials resulting from mining or industrial operations.” 

An academic partner is required and the funding under the anticipated NOFO would be in the form of a cost-shared financial assistance agreement, which a 50% cost-share by the recipient of the funding. In addition, prime recipients receiving funding must be “incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a state or territory of the United States and have a physical location for business operations in the United States.” Foreign entity applicants are expected to be eligible, but must designate a subsidiary or U.S. affiliate to be the prime recipient and describe the nature of the corporate relationship between the foreign entity and the designated entity.

Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion–Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities
DOE’s FECM announced its intent to issue a NOFO of approximately $250 million of funding to support industries that have the potential to produce “valuable mineral byproducts from existing industrial processes.” These include facilities involves in “mining and mineral processing, power generation, coal, oil and gas, specialty metals, and basic materials.” Such facilities may have the potential to recover critical minerals, but there are technical barriers to commercial deployment of the relevant technologies. The anticipated NOFO, which would be issued under Sections 7001(a) and 7002(g) of the Energy Act of 2020 and Section 41003(b) and (c) of IIJA, is likely intended to support the piloting of relevant technologies at commercial scale to derisk investments both from a technology and financial standpoint.

Anticipated areas of support include:  

• A coal industry-related pilot-scale recovery facility at a domestic location that is based on bench and/or pilot-scale processes that have been “demonstrated, utilizing actual (non-stimulated) feedstock(s), as being technically feasible on a continuous/semicontinuous basis at technology readiness level (TRL) 5” to produce market-ready critical minerals and materials, and provide a plan for commercialization in the near-term (2028-2030). Feedstock must be coal-industry related, including waste materials, with a preference for process automation and use of various feedstock materials.
• Any domestic industrial facility with production critical mineral and material byproduct streams based on bench or pilot-scale processes as described above with respect to coal.

For the coal industry-related facility, government funding available would be $75 million and up to three awards may be available ranging from $10-50 million per award. For the other facilities, government funding available would be $175 million and up to seven awards may be available ranging from $10-50 million per award. In addition, for both, a cost share with the recipient of 20-50% may be required. Examples of target minerals for production from chosen pilot-scale facilities may include: cobalt, nickel, manganese, magnesium, gallium, germanium, lithium and REEs.

In addition, on September 10, 2025, FECM announced its intent to launch the Technology for Recovery and Advanced Critical-material Extraction–Gallium (TRACE-Ga) to support technologies for recovering gallium from U.S. metal processing feedstocks. The goal of prospective projects would be to validate a protype capable of producing at least one metric ton per annum scale of gallium. Eligible applicants must provide evidence of success from recovering gallium from relevant feedstocks, a letter of support from a party that has ownership and/or rights to proposed feedstock materials (if applicable) and describe the scale-up potential of the project.

Technology developers and industrial host sites must apply jointly. To facilitate connections between such parties and prospective teams, DOE is allowing entities to submit requests to be included on a Teaming Partner List.

Recover Critical Minerals from Industrial Wastewater 
DOE announced that the ARPA-E is planning to announce project selections under its Opportunities Valorizing Extraction from Refuse waters (RECOVER) program aimed at recovering critical minerals from domestic wastewater. Technologies supported under the program are intended to complement mining operations to make more efficient the extraction of critical minerals from wastewater.

Next Steps
DOE is anticipated to issue the NOFOs on an ongoing basis in the coming months. In preparation, companies should:

• Register early using the processes outlined in the notices.
• Review requirements, including FEOC restrictions, commercialization timelines, technical criteria, cost-share rules.
• Explore teaming opportunities with industry stakeholders and by submitting requests through DOE’s Teaming Partner list.
• Engage potential offtakers and investors to position projects for commercialization.

The authors thank Pillsbury’s International Trade practice’s Trade and Policy Specialist, Xavier Gillett for his assistance with the article.