About Us

The Center for Critical Minerals (C²M) combines Penn State's expertise across several colleges in strategic partnership with industrial partners to develop the fundamental science and technology to harness domestic mineral sources. The center builds on Penn State's established interdisciplinary capabilities to make the University the premier technical and research support partner for companies developing commercial critical materials projects.

The Center for Critical Minerals (C²M) works to mitigate risk posed to the United States' dependency on raw and semi-finished materials for advanced manufacturing. In 2017, the U.S. produced an estimated $75.2 billion of nonfuel materials. Those base materials were used in energy, medical, and defense applications along with consumer electronics. However, in production of those goods, the U.S. was completely dependent on imports of twenty-one out of the fifty nonfuel commodities. That dependency poses a national security and economic risk if the U.S. does not develop methods and technologies to create its own supply of critical materials.

C²M draws on Penn State's existing expertise and capabilities to further critical mineral research and technology with industry partners. Faculty, facilities, and students within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and other colleges, collaborate across disciplines in the following areas:

Those areas position C²M to research the production of critical material from 1) Plant design and simulation, including multiphase reaction kinetics, fluid flow, and heat transfer modeling; 2) Project economics and financial modeling; and 3) Policy and Legal analysis. Learn more about the research goals and mission of C²M.