The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $180,189 Project Grant under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) to The Washington and Lee University. The grant, effective August 15, 2024, with a projected completion date of July 31, 2027, will support collaborative research to investigate the potential for extracting rare earth elements and yttrium from acid mine drainage using biotic and abiotic hydrous manganese oxides. The research aims to identify optimal conditions for concentrating...
This $350,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences (CFDA 47.050) program will enable researchers at The Washington University to investigate the biogeochemical processes affecting critical mineral resources in mine tailings and weathered ore zones in the United States. The primary research focus is characterizing rare earth elements in iron oxide-apatite and carbonatite ore waste materials, as well as platinum group elements in weathered ore zones, using...
This $451,225 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) to the University of Kentucky Research Foundation will support collaborative research to explore new sources of rare earth elements (REEs) in the Southeastern U.S. The project aims to investigate the provenance and delivery of the REE-bearing mineral monazite from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Researchers will utilize advanced analytical techniques such as mass...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) will support collaborative research to investigate the provenance of rare earth element-bearing monazite minerals in the Southeastern U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. The $147,775 award, made to Syracuse University, aims to explore potential bedrock and sedimentary sources of monazite and develop improved methods for locating these critical mineral deposits. The research will employ mass...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) Project Grant award of $180,000 provides funding for a postdoctoral fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Caddick at Virginia Tech. The research, professional development, and outreach activities focus on constraining the mobility of rare earth elements (REEs) in subduction zones. The research aims to test hypotheses about the sequestration and mobilization of REEs during subduction processes, using a forward model...
This $1,000,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will support the development of a novel "REESPECT" (Rare Earth Element-Selective Protein-Hydrogels to Enable Cation Trapping) platform for efficient and selective extraction and separation of rare earth elements (REEs) from recycling feedstocks. The research, led by the University of Pennsylvania, aims to create hydrogel materials containing engineered protein fibrils with...
This $289,851 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Integrative Activities (IA) program supports research at the University of Delaware that aims to develop new pathways for the recovery and recycling of rare-earth elements (REEs). The project focuses on investigating the formation and properties of high-temperature REE-sulfate liquids, with the goal of advancing alternative REE extraction and separation technologies that could enable more circular manufacturing...
This $347,924 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) supports research at North Carolina State University to identify and characterize biogenic ligands that promote the solubilization and uptake of rare earth elements by bacteria from soils and other matrices. Over a three-year period from January 2023 to December 2025, the university will combine microbiology with coordination, soil, and analytical chemical approaches to discover and study...
This $239,788 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) supports collaborative research by Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology to study the occurrence and geochemistry of rare earth elements (REEs) in highly weathered sedimentary rocks and kaolin deposits in Georgia. The key objectives are to obtain a fundamental understanding of the geochemical factors controlling the...
The University of Pittsburgh will receive $199,999 from the Department of the Interior Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement under the Science and Technology Projects Related to Coal Mining and Reclamation program (CFDA 15.255) from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024. The Cooperative Agreement will support development of a scalable method for efficient extraction of rare earth elements and yttrium from acidic mine drainage through collaborative research involving geochemical...