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Project Information: DOE NETL, DE-FE0032555 $6,250,000, 2025-2028
There is a clear need to develop domestic sourcing and production of rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals and materials (CMM) that are necessary for modern technology and clean energy production. There is an opportunity to obtain REE/CMM from domestic coal-based resources through advanced processing to produce pure, individual rare earth oxides (REO), rare earth salts (RES), rare earth metals (REM), and CMM. The goal of this project is to produce desired individually separated high purity REO/RES/REM/CMM from abundant, low-grade coal byproducts using innovative mineral and chemical separation technologies at 20 % less cost than conventional methods. The approach to accomplishing this goal is to utilize team-developed, commercially licensed REE/REO/REM/CMM processing technologies for reduced cost, environmentally friendly resource upgrading, enhanced extraction, selective separations, and high purity metal production. The goal success metrics include the production of a minimum of: 1) five individually separated, high purity REO/RES at ∼90-99.99% purity; 2) five individual or binary REM at a purity of ∼99.5-99.8%; and 3) five additional ~90-99% pure individual CMM as oxide(s), salt(s) or metal(s) from coal byproducts.
Key Personnel:
Michael Free, Prashant Sarswat, and Zak Fang
Key Collaborators:
Virginia Tech (VT) (Aaron Noble and Roe-Hoan Yoon), Blacksand Technology, LLC, and Core Natural Resources (previously Arch Resources and CONSOL Energy, which are now merged)
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Project Information: DARPA HR00112430333, $220,446, 2024-2025
The overall objective of this project is to produce separate, pure REE products using metal organic framework -coated particles and kinetic ion transport separation technologies in development at the University of Utah. The specific targets for this project are > 90 % pure Dy, Eu, Gd, Nd/Pr.
Key Personnel:
Michael Free and Prashant Sarswat
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Project Information: US Department of State, 5 years
The team, consisting of a partnership between the University of Utah (lead) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and possessing decades of mining and training experience in the circumpolar north, has come together to assist the Greenland School of Minerals and Petroleum (KTI Råstofskolen, Aatsitassalerinermik Ilinniarfik or KTIR) in advancing its training capabilities to address the growing mining sector in Greenland.
Key Personnel: Rajive Ganguli, Mike Nelson
Key Collaborators: Charles Kocsis
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Project Information: Newmont Corporation; Evaluating bespoke AI algorithms for gold estimation at Brucejack.
Key Personnel: Rajive Ganguli
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Project Information: DOE DE-FE0032050; through University of Alaska Fairbanks
Our role involved evaluating critical minerals resources in Alaska by analyzing satellite data, geochemical database and waste stream resources.
Key Personnel: Rajive Ganguli, Bryony Richards
Key Collaborators: Narmandakh Sarantsatsral
Final report URL: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2484188
Figure: GA Cluster
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Project Information: DOE NETL, $9,598,204, 2026-2029 (under contract negotiation)
The project objectives are to: evaluate regional carbon ore and CMM resources associated with coal related materials, sedimentary hosted minerals, waste related materials, and other potential value-added materials; assess and characterize carbon ore and CMM resources to determine the potential of CMM resources in the Rocky Mountain region (see Figure 2); share resulting data through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) EDX database and visualized using validated geologic models; develop plans addressing regional strategies related to business commercialization, workforce readiness, technology assessments, stakeholder outreach, energy equity and justice, ongoing energy transformation, and community impacts; develop a roadmap for the implementation of technology innovation centers (TICs); and collaborate with CORE-CM regional efforts, DOE-National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) working groups, and Critical Materials Collaborative (CMC) to coordinate across research efforts.
Key Personnel:
Michael Free, Lauren Birgenheier, Prashant Sarswat, Pratt Rogers
Key Collaborators:
Central Wyoming College, Colorado Mesa University, Colorado School of Mines, Lamar University, Montana Technological University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, University of Wyoming, Utah State University Eastern, Western Colorado University, Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, Colorado Geological Survey, Idaho Geological Survey, Utah Geological Survey, Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative (now 47 G), JWP Consulting, Sonash, LLC, Wolverine Fuels, LLC.
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Project Information: McKinnon; a free Windows software for orebody modeling.
Key Personnel: Rajive Ganguli, Ishmael Anafo
Project Website: https://mining.utah.edu/ai.sys/download_boxrf.php
Final report URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/8/4416
Figure: The building blocks of BoxRF, leaf, branch, trees, and forest.
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Proposal Award Number: DE-FOA-003002
Funding Body: Department of Energy (DOE)
Anticipated Funding Amount: $748,987
Project Information: The objective of the Emery-Carbon Counties Energy and Economic Transition Project is to develop an evidence-based, regionally grounded roadmap for economic resilience and workforce transition in Utah’s historic coal-producing regions, specifically Emery County and Carbon County. The project seeks to identify, evaluate, and prioritize viable post-coal economic pathways that are technically feasible, environmentally responsible, socially acceptable, and aligned with evolving state and federal energy and mineral policy frameworks. Rather than prescribing a single replacement industry, the project adopts a portfolio approach, recognizing that durable transition will require multiple, complementary economic drivers operating across different time horizons.Key Personnel: Kody Powell (PI, U of U), Pratt Rogers (U of U), Ethan Gallup (U of U), Mauro Cruzalegui (U of U), Praopan Pratoomchat (U of U), Nate Lloyd (U of U), Jade Powell (SEDA)
Key Collaborators: Southeastern Regional Development Agency (SEDA)
Proposed start and End of Project: 2024-2026
Image: AVIRIS imaging spectrometer data acquired over southeastern Utah and processed to characterize surface mineralogy through comparison with the JPL mineral spectral database using Spectral Information Divergence (SID) mapping.
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Funding Body: Wilson Center; Start-up Research Funds, others.
Project Information: This research package examines the political economy and political ecology of critical minerals in the low-carbon transition, with particular attention to China’s role in reshaping extractive governance, supply chains, and environmental authority under conditions of intensifying geopolitical competition. Across comparative and multi-scalar studies of rare earths, cobalt, and other strategic minerals, the work shows how decarbonization is not simply a technical or environmental project, but a deeply contested process structured by fractured state authority, corporate power, financialization, and uneven global development. It demonstrates how “green” standards and ESG instruments -- advanced by both Chinese and Western actors -- operate as technologies of governance that reconfigure responsibility and risk without resolving extractive harms. At the same time, the research foregrounds midstream processing as a critical and under-theorized site of geopolitical power, revealing how control over refining and manufacturing, rather than extraction alone, shapes global dependencies. Through case studies spanning China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and transnational mineral supply chains, this body of work advances concepts such as fractured extraction, pericentricity, and accumulation by decarbonization to show how the green transition reproduces colonial and capitalist inequalities even as it claims environmental leadership. Collectively, the project contributes a relational, anti-exceptionalist account of China’s environmental power while offering broader insights into the governance, geopolitics, and justice implications of the global decarbonization efforts.
Key Personnel: Jessica DiCarlo
Key Collaborators: Raphael Deberdt, Cory Combs, Philippe Le Billon
Proposed start and End of Project:
Project Website: https://jessicadicarlo.phd
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Project Information: $2,522,143, DOE DE-FE0032046 CORE-CM, 2021-2024
The objectives of this project are to quantify, assess, and plan to enable the transformation of Uinta Basin earth resources such as coal, oil shale, resin, rare earth elements (REE), and critical materials into high-value metal, mineral, and carbon-based products that can be used in advanced products such as carbon fiber composites in aircraft and high-powered magnets and batteries in electric vehicles. The transformation begins with understanding the geology, which enables discovery of value-added resources, followed by innovative mining to optimize resource recovery, metallurgical processing to separate minerals and purify metals, chemical engineering to enable production of value-added carbon-based products, training and education to prepare the workforce, stakeholder engagement and outreach to facilitate sustainable development, and industry support to drive implementation and manufacturing.
Final report URL: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2565707
Key Personnel:
Michael Free, Lauren Birgenheier, Prashant Sarswat, Eric Eddings, Bobby Mohanty, Michael Nigra, Jim Patten, Rajive Ganguli, Pratt Rogers, Jessica Wempen, Jan Miller, Xuming Wang
Key Collaborators:
Colorado School of Mines, JWP Consulting, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative (now part of 47 G), Utah Geological Survey, Utah State University Eastern, and Wolverine Fuels
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Project Information: Sandia National Lab, $49,500, 2025-2026
The objectives of this project are to evaluate the force-based separation of rare earth elements from citric based solutions using magnetic-force-based technology. Testing will be conducted to determine removal efficiency, separation factors as a function of time, and the estimated cost of producing purified products. This work will strengthen collaborations with the University of Utah in the critical minerals research area. The application of magnetic-force-based separation technology to citric acid leaching solution is complementary to the core LDRD work and together will support the development of a domestic critical mineral supply chain and enhancing national security.
Key Personnel:
Michael Free
Key Collaborator:
Sandia National Lab
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Project Information: Erdenet Mining Company; Orebody modeling and cut-off grade optimization for Erdenet Copper Mine, Mongolia.
Key Personnel: Rajive Ganguli, Narmandakh Sarantsatsral
Figure: EMC
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Proposal Award Number: N/A
Funding Body: Private industry funding
Anticipated Funding Amount: $300,000
Project Information: This project is a collaborative research initiative with First Element Exploration (FEX) focused on advancing the scientific and exploration understanding of natural (geologic) hydrogen systems and their potential role in emerging low-carbon energy portfolios. Unlike engineered hydrogen production pathways, natural hydrogen is generated continuously by subsurface geologic processes such as serpentinization, radiolysis, iron oxidation, and deep crustal fluid-rock reactions. Recent discoveries worldwide have demonstrated that hydrogen can accumulate, migrate, and locally concentrate in economically meaningful ways, yet systematic exploration frameworks remain underdeveloped. The objective of this project is to move natural hydrogen exploration beyond anecdotal discoveries by developing a repeatable, geology-driven prospectivity framework that integrates remote sensing, structural geology, geochemistry, and basin-scale analysis. The work is designed to support early-stage exploration decisions while simultaneously addressing key scientific uncertainties around hydrogen generation, migration, and surface expression.
Key Personnel: Bryony Richards (U of U), Eiichi Setoyama (U of U)
Key Collaborators: First Element Exploration (FEX)
Proposed start and End of Project: 2025-2027
Figure: AVIRIS analysis over Mali illustrating surface alteration patterns. Left: Spectral Hydrogen Alteration (SHA) Index map highlighting concentric zones of anomalous spectral response interpreted as redox- and fluid-related surface alteration; white points mark field observations/prospect locations. Right: Mineralogical classification derived using the JPL spectral mineral library and Spectral Information Divergence (SID), showing spatial distributions of clay minerals (e.g., illite, smectite, kaolinite, illite–smectite), carbonates, iron oxides, and associated alteration assemblages. The combined SHA and SID results emphasize ring-shaped alteration and mineral zonation consistent with fluid migration pathways relevant to uranium–vanadium mineralization.
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Project Information: DOE DE-FE0032122, REE refining program, $250,000, 2022-2024
The general objectives of this project are to develop concepts for rare earth metal and critical mineral production from coal-based and related (minerals associated with coal) resources and incorporate them into a Technical Research Plan with an associated overall flow sheet and develop appropriate industry partnerships.
Key Personnel:
Michael Free, Prashant Sarswat, Zak Fang, and Pei Sun
Key Collaborators:
Virginia Tech (VT), Blacksand Technology, LLC Grimstone Mining, LLC, Minerals Refining Company, Energy Fuels Resources Inc.
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Project Information: $2.6M, ARPA-E, DOI, Industry Sponsorship.
Our collaborative team has developed a suite of molecular and nanomaterial-based sensors that rapidly detect rare earth elements (REEs) at low concentrations, enabling real-time onsite monitoring across mining and processing operations, including exploratory drilling. These sensors provide fast, quantitative readouts for multiple REEs, delivering rapid feedback to optimize leaching, extraction, separation, and purification, steps that are essential for efficient REE production and downstream manufacturing. Importantly, the sensor platform is also effective for monitoring mining waste streams, where REE concentrations are often below the detection limits of conventional technologies. Compared with current field-deployed analytical instrumentation, our sensors offer a major advance in portability, adaptability, speed, and ease of use, overcoming limitations associated with slow turnaround times, bulky equipment, and operational complexity.
Key Personnel: Xinbo Yang, Ling Zang
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Proposal Award Number: G24AC00492-00
Funding Body: United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Anticipated Funding Amount: $353,413
Project Information: The USGS Earth Mapping Resource Initiative (Earth MRI) is a partnership of the USGS, the Association of American State Geologists and other governmental, Tribal and private sector entities to update the nation’s surface and subsurface mapping, to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework in the United States and to identify areas that may have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources.
More information: https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-earth-mri
Key Personnel: Bryony Richards (U of U), Stephanie Mills (UGS)
Key Collaborators: Utah Geological Survey (UGS), United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Proposed start and End of Project: 2024-2026
Photo: Burgin tailings, Tintic Mining district, Utah.
