The Energy Department is planning to provide up to half a billion dollars to expand mineral processing in the U.S. and the manufacturing and recycling of battery metals.
DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation is offering $500 million tied to the bipartisan infrastructure law to support demonstration and commercial-scale facilities that manufacture or recycle materials used in batteries and other energy technologies.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. for too long has relied on hostile foreign actors to supply and process the critical materials. DOE is “strengthening these domestic industries that will position the U.S. to win the AI race, meeting rising energy demand, and achieve energy dominance,” he said in a statement.
DOE is targeting minerals such as nickel, copper, lithium, graphite and aluminum while aiming to strengthen critical domestic manufacturing and supply chains and increase critical minerals production by up to 15 percent by 2030 for key critical materials used in batteries and other applications, according to the funding proposal.
