46 Research to Accelerate Recovery of Critical Minerals from Primary and Secondary Resources

Innovative technology is needed to mine critical minerals to meet unprecedented demand. This session invites to present research in characterization, extraction, separation, in-situ recovery, and related areas that accelerate the recovery of critical minerals from traditional, secondary and unconventional resources.

Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 216AB

Environmental Benign Recovery of Critical Minerals from Domestic Resources

Paper number: 46-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:40 PM – 2:55 PM

Authors

Abstract

The demand for key critical minerals (CMs) in these technologies could grow over 450% by 2050. The U.S. currently relies heavily on import. Existing CM extraction processes are labor-intensive and take a devastating toll on the environment due to the generation of large volumes of waste streams. Assuring a secure, reliable, and sustainable domestic supply of CMs is essential to both national security and net-zero carbon goals by 2050. Its success depends upon enabling environmentally friendly extraction from unconventional and secondary domestic sources.

This presentation will introduce critical mineral recovery efforts using organic acids from secondary and unconventional resources, including coal ash, shale, mine tailings, lithium clay deposit and produced water. Our major findings and progress on recovery of these feedstocks will be presented.

SNL is managed and operated by NTESS under DOE NNSA contract DE-NA0003525. This project is supported by the U.S. DOE FECM via FWP-23-025668 and DE-FE0032051. SAND2024-07687A

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414585

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