NETL and EMSL Collaborating to Advance Sources of Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements

Experts from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) are collaborating with the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL) on a community science campaign to identify, characterize, and process domestic sources of critical minerals (CMs), including rare earth elements (REEs), needed to ensure American energy dominance and national security.

NETL has been tasked to co-lead the Critical Minerals Science Campaign with EMSL, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national scientific facility located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory along with researchers from Duke University, Michigan State University, and Idaho National Laboratory.

The Department of the Interior, through the U.S. Geological Survey, published a list of CMs outlining 60 minerals vital to the U.S. economy and national security that face potential risks from disrupted supply chains.

CMs are essential for modern technologies and economies, but face supply chain disruption due to concentrated production in a few countries, geopolitical instability, or lack of substitutes. REEs are difficult and environmentally intensive to extract and process in commercially viable quantities.

CMs and REEs are vital for defense applications, consumer electronics, medical devices and aerospace. Without reliable access to these materials, the development and deployment of technologies would be significantly hindered, impacting national security, economic competitiveness and reliable, secure energy.

NETL's Mengling Stuckman, a senior geochemist with more than 10 years of experience in CM characterization and processing, is leading the NETL/EMSL collaboration. The project is an effort between two DOE offices, the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) and the Office of Science.

"EMSL is a high-tech research user facility focused on understanding natural and engineered systems at the molecular level, particularly relevant to geological and energy sciences," Stuckman explained. "Our NETL scientists are collaborating with EMSL scientists to lead the campaign that is officially known as Biogeochemical Processes Governing Critical Mineral Recovery in Mineral Dominated Systems, or also referred to as Unconventional Critical Campaign."

The campaign will build a collaborative research community with scientists from national labs, academia and industrial partners, who together with EMSL scientists will address CM complex research challenges and knowledge gaps.

The effort will support and complement DOE's Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative, which is scaling its focus from 13 basins in the continental United States to eight broader regions across the nation, including Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico through 8 projects awarded $60 million in funding.

Odeta Qafoku, an Earth scientist with EMSL who is co-leading the effort, explained that low-grade ores, mine tailings, geofluids, and other waste streams are potential valuable and domestically untapped sources of CMs. However, these sources are too dilute for conventional mining approaches.

"Microbially driven biomining methods, which involve extracting CMMs using biological approaches, offer a potential mechanism for extraction from unconventional source materials," Qafoku said. "To deploy such bio/geo-inspired technologies, there is a need for improved fundamental understanding of the complex biological and geochemical processes that control the behavior of these mineral-dominated systems."

Stuckman said an Unconventional Critical Campaign research strategy session earlier this year laid the groundwork for intensified research efforts on CM and REE recovery.

"We identified critical knowledge gaps, defined and prioritized science questions and research approaches, pinpointed sites and materials where research could address knowledge gaps and developed a framework that uses EMSL capabilities to generate data to support AI-driven analysis of pathways to CM recovery."

The Unconventional Critical Campaign team issued a call for campaign research proposals in June 2026; next, the EMSL team and campaign leads will soon begin working with the approved campaign proposal teams.

EMSL provides researchers around the world with integrated experimental and computational resources to address complex scientific challenges. It offers an array of advanced instruments and expertise in molecular characterization, imaging and computational modeling. EMSL launched a series of community science campaigns to tackle DOE biological and environmental research grand challenges in the areas of biology, environmental science, and computing/artificial intelligence (AI).

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory dedicated to innovating and accelerating the nation's energy solutions in hydrocarbons, geothermal energy, and critical minerals production. The Lab further strengthens its impact by engaging with industry, academia and other stakeholders through four strategically located Centers of Excellence: Coal, Critical Minerals and Advanced Alloys, Oil & Gas, and Geothermal. With research sites in Albany, Oregon; Morgantown, West Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, NETL operates as one laboratory to create advanced energy technologies that support DOE's mission and enable affordable, reliable and secure energy to fuel human prosperity.