The NETL-led Critical Materials Supply Chain Research Facility (METALLIC) kicked off its five-year mission last year to develop a national capability for establishing new domestic critical minerals and materials (CMM) supply chains, from extraction to manufacturing.

CMMs are essential for developing nearly all modern technologies, including those for national defense. However, the United States imports nearly all its CMMs from foreign sources, creating vulnerabilities in the supply chain. Establishing a secure, sustainable domestic supply of critical minerals from a broad range of sources across the country is crucial to the nation’s security and prosperity.

“METALLIC is creating a new innovation ecosystem, not by building new buildings, but by leveraging existing research infrastructure.  This allows us to immediately bring the expertise of nine national laboratories to bear on the nation’s critical materials challenges,” said NETL’s Tom Tarka, director and principal investigator of METALLIC. “This is one of our guiding principles: the urgency of the moment requires action that has immediate and meaningful impacts. And this is something that can only happen through an inclusive approach.”

The initiative combines the capabilities of the participating national labs under a virtual roof, organized into different centers according to areas of the supply chain and laboratory expertise. Centers are focused on feedstock beneficiation, extractions and separations, refining, and alloy development and advanced manufacturing.

NETL will lead the center tasked with feedstock beneficiation, which includes processes that improve the economic value of the CMM feedstock materials. Beneficiation activities include rare earth ore beneficiation, battery mineral beneficiation, and brine testbeds. Each of these flagship activities will be led by the national labs that are most familiar and best equipped for the task. For instance, because rare earth ore beneficiation can result in radiological waste, the national lab focused on nuclear energy — the Idaho National Laboratory — will maintain those activities. NETL will handle the other two activities by leveraging new cutting-edge facilities being established at NETL’s Albany and Pittsburgh sites that will optimize the Lab’s extensive CMM research experience.

“METALLIC is designed as a facility where users can access equipment and expertise rather than a place for national labs to do their own research,” Tarka said. “Such users could include stakeholders from academia, industry and manufacturers, recipients of federal funding, entrepreneurs, government agencies and others interested in solving their own unique CMM challenges. Whether that is a technology they want to validate, a feedstock they want to have processed, or a material they need to be developed, experts will connect those interested parties with the METALLIC center that can best serve their needs.”

High-level outcomes from these activities will include de-risking technologies for industry and accelerating their deployment. Stakeholders will also be able to produce validated materials, working prototypes and prepared materials for other research.

At the end of the five-year METALLIC project, the facility will provide automated, configurable test beds that accelerate research and development across the entire CMM supply chain; broad, integrated capabilities that provide a flexible foundation to address current and future challenges; and an innovation ecosystem to support entities creating new, domestic CMM industries. 

NETL leads METALLIC with participation from Ames National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation to deliver solutions for a secure energy future. Through its expertise and research facilities, NETL is advancing technologies to unleash America’s affordable, reliable and secure domestic energy and natural resources.