Materia USA Awarded Option 1 of U.S. Department of Energy Contract to Advance Unconventional Critical Mineral Recoveries
By Rabbi Yechezkel “Zeke” Moskowitz
Inwood, NY (April 30, 2021) – Materia-USA, a next-generation developer for rare earth and critical mineral projects in the United States, announced today that the company has been awarded Option 1 (Second Phase) of a contract from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Continuation of the contract will fund a feasibility study, which follows the successful completion of Materia’s initial conceptual designs for a facility that will conduct reclamation of rare earths and critical minerals from an unconventional feedstock - in this case, coal measure underclay’s in central Pennsylvania. Work will commence on May 3, 2021.
The first phase of the DOE-funded work focused on Materia’s conceptual design for rare earths and other critical minerals reclamation through unconventional methods utilizing coal-based resources. Building on this conceptual design, the feasibility study will detail the economic benefits of the concept, in addition to the environmental impact of the design through a life cycle analysis (LCA) of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) in partnership with the Global Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council (WtERT).