EMSL and NETL Collaborate to Advance Sources of Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements
Researchers will investigate how biological processes could help recover valuable metals from domestic mine waste, low-grade ores, geofluids, or other unconventional materials
Through the Unconventional Critical Campaign, EMSL researchers expect to advance scalable mechanistic understanding of fundamental geochemical and microbial processes and rate controls that influence solubilization and transport of critical minerals and materials in sediments. (Photo by jukree, iStock)
Researchers from the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory (EMSL) are collaborating with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) on a community science campaign to identify, characterize, and process domestic sources of critical minerals (CMs), including rare earth elements (REEs), needed to ensure American energy dominance and national security.
EMSL has been tasked to co-lead a critical minerals science campaign with NETL, along with researchers from Duke University, Michigan State University, and Idaho National Laboratory.
Why are critical minerals and rare earth elements at risk?
The Department of the Interior, through the U.S. Geological Survey, published a list outlining 60 minerals vital to the U.S. economy and national security that face potential risks from disrupted supply chains.
CMs are essential for modern technologies and economies, but face supply chain disruption due to concentrated production in a few countries, geopolitical instability, or lack of substitutes. REEs are difficult and environmentally intensive to extract and process in commercially viable quantities.
CMs and REEs are vital for defense applications, consumer electronics, medical devices, and aerospace. Without reliable access to these materials, the development and deployment of technologies would be significantly hindered, impacting national security, economic competitiveness and reliable, secure energy.
How does this collaboration relate to Department of Energy offices and initiatives?
NETL's Mengling Stuckman, a senior geochemist with more than 10 years of experience in CM characterization and processing, is co-leading the EMSL-NETL collaboration. The project is an effort between two DOE offices: the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) and the Office of Science.
"EMSL is a high-tech research user facility focused on understanding natural and engineered systems at the molecular level, particularly relevant to geological and energy sciences," Stuckman explained. "Our NETL scientists are collaborating with EMSL scientists to lead the campaign that is officially known as Biogeochemical Processes Governing Critical Mineral Recovery in Mineral Dominated Systems, or also referred to as Unconventional Critical Campaign."
The campaign will build a collaborative research community with scientists from national laboratories, academia, and industrial partners, who together will address CM complex research challenges and knowledge gaps.
The effort will support and complement DOE's Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative, which is scaling its focus from 13 basins in the continental U.S. to eight broader regions across the nation, including Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, through eight projects awarded $60 million in funding.
What fundamental knowledge are campaign researchers pursuing?
Odeta Qafoku, an EMSL Earth scientist who is co-leading the effort, explained that low-grade ores, mine tailings, geofluids, and other waste streams are potential valuable and domestically untapped sources of CMs. However, these sources are too dilute for conventional mining approaches.
"Microbially-driven biomining methods, which involve extracting CMMs using biological approaches, offer a potential mechanism for extraction from unconventional source materials," Qafoku said. "To deploy such bio/geo-inspired technologies, there is a need for improved fundamental understanding of the complex biological and geochemical processes that control the behavior of these mineral-dominated systems."
Stuckman said an Unconventional Critical Campaign research strategy session earlier this year laid the groundwork for intensified research efforts on CM and REE recovery.
"We identified critical knowledge gaps, defined and prioritized science questions and research approaches, pinpointed sites and materials where research could address knowledge gaps, and developed a framework that uses EMSL capabilities to generate data to support AI-driven analysis of pathways to CM recovery."
The team issued a call for Unconventional Critical Campaign research proposals in June 2026. Then, the EMSL team and campaign leads began working with the approved campaign proposal teams.
Who are EMSL and NETL?
The Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) is a Department of Energy Office of Science national user facility that accelerates scientific discovery and pioneers new capabilities to understand biological and environmental processes across temporal and spatial scales. EMSL leads the scientific community toward a predictive understanding of complex biological and environmental systems to enable sustainable solutions to the Nation's energy and environmental challenges.
NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory dedicated to innovating and accelerating the nation's energy solutions in hydrocarbons, geothermal energy, and critical minerals production. The Lab further strengthens its impact by engaging with industry, academia, and other stakeholders through four strategically located Centers of Excellence: Coal, Critical Minerals and Advanced Alloys, Oil & Gas, and Geothermal. With research sites in Albany, Oregon; Morgantown, West Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, NETL operates as one laboratory to create advanced energy technologies that support DOE's mission and enable affordable, reliable, and secure energy to fuel human prosperity.