The Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative

The Regional CORE-CM Initiative has now begun. Application selection notifications are expected October, 2024.

Please see Funding Notice: Regional Scale Collaboration to Facilitate a Domestic Critical Minerals Future: Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative for more information.

Overview

The Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) FOA-0002364 funds coalition teams focused on addressing the upstream & midstream critical mineral (CM) supply chain and downstream manufacturing of high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products, to accelerate the realization of full potential for carbon ores and critical minerals within the U.S basins.

Teams will 1) assess each basin’s unique characteristics: sources/resources, infrastructure, industrial and technology needs, and reclamation and remediation potential; 2) facilitate the establishment of public-private partnerships; and 3) perform stakeholder outreach and education.

Emphasizing unconventional and secondary sources, regional assessments are an essential link between the resource characteristics within a region and opportunities to develop robust circular supply chains. Transportation costs may impact the carbon footprint of any commodity. The CORE-CM Initiative for U.S. Basins is a further step toward achieving the goal of comprehensive resource assessment technologies and local development of supply chain elements near the raw resources.

The CORE-CM Initiative is designed as a multi-year effort to benefit regional economic growth and job creation while accelerating the development of upstream and midstream CM supply chain, and impacting the downstream manufacturing of high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products.

To promote environmental justice and reduce the occupational health and safety impacts associated with any proposed products, CORE-CM Initiatives identifies environmental, health, and safety requirements pertaining to:

Processing (extraction, concentration, metal extraction, and separation) of raw materials.
Shipping, receiving, storage, handling, and use of raw materials to manufacture products.
Field modifications and installation (e.g., cutting, drilling, finishing) of manufactured products.
Long-term use of the manufactured product in residential, commercial, and industrial settings.
Demolition, removal, and recycling of end-product for reintroduction to supply chain.

Participants include:

Relevant subject matter experts (including geologists, engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs)
Coal mining companies
Accredited mining schools and other academic institutions
Relevant manufacturers and businesses
Training and workforce development organizations
National Laboratories
Federal and state agencies
Non-profit/non-governmental stakeholders
State Geological Surveys

The vision of the CORE-CM Initiative for U.S. Basins is to catalyze regional economic growth and job creation by realizing the full potential value of natural resources, such as coal, across basins throughout the U.S. It has been designed to address the upstream and midstream critical minerals supply chain and downstream manufacturing of high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products, to accelerate the realization of full potential for carbon ores and critical minerals within the U.S basins. U.S. coals and associated by-products and waste streams can be used as feedstocks for domestic production of REE and CM to enhance our national and economic security. They can also be used as sources of carbon for production of high-value, nonfuel, carbon-based products.

Objectives

Awarded Projects

Project Title	Prime Performer	Agreement Number
Manufacturing Valuable Coal-Derived Products in Southern Appalachia	Critical Minerals Sustainability Program Project Portfolio	FE0032045
Transforming Unita Basin Earth Materials for Advanced Products (Tube-Map)	University of Utah	FE0032046
Core-CM in the Greater Green River and Wind River Basins: Transforming and Advancing a National Coal Asset	University of Wyoming	FE0032047
Powder River Basin Core-Cm: Advancing Strategies for Carbon Ore, Rare Earth Element and Critical Mineral Resource Development in the Nation’s Largest Coal Producing Basin	University of Wyoming	FE0032048
Illinois Basin Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals Initiative	University of Illinois	FE0032049
Bringing Alaska’s Core-CM Potential into Perspective	University of Alaska – Fairbanks	FE0032050
Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Assessment of San Juan River-Raton Coal Basin, New Mexico	New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology	FE0032051
Consortium to Assess Northern Appalachia Resource Yield (CANARY) of CORE-CM for Advanced Materials	Pennsylvania State University	FE0032052
Assessment of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals in Coal and Coal Ash in the U.S. Gulf Coast	University of Texas at Austin	FE0032053
Mid-Appalachian Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals Initiative	West Virginia University Research Corporation	FE0032054
Evolve Central Appalachia (Evolve CAPP)	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	FE0032055
Critical Minerals in Coaly Strata of the Cherokee-Forest City Basin	University of Kansas Center for Research	FE0032056
Williston Basin CORE-CM Initiative	University of North Dakota	FE0032060

CORE-CM Project Presentations

CORE-CM Project Phases