LARAMIE, Wyo. – The University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources was recently selected to receive $7.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management to lead a regional coalition to support domestic supplies of critical minerals and expands materials.
The project, totaling more than $10.1 million, will evaluate the carbon ore, rare earth and critical mineral potential of the Great Plains and Interior Highlands, comprised of ten states and four basins, for the first time as part of Phase I of the DOE initiative were examined.
As part of a national strategy to find alternative domestic sources of rare earth elements and critical minerals, DOE's investment will expand the focus from the basin level to the regional level to accelerate the development of critical mineral and materials supply chains. These include novel carbon-based non-fuel products from secondary and unconventional raw materials such as coal and coal waste.
The project team is led by co-principal investigators Tyler Brown, an associate research professional at SER. Dave Aadland, director of the UW Center for Business and Economic Analysis and UW professor of economics; and Selena Gerace and Davin Bagdonas, both senior research experts at SER. Bagdonas previously served as principal investigator for a Phase I project in the Greater Green River and Wind River basins in Wyoming.
“We have made significant progress in assessing the coal basins that extend through Wyoming, Colorado and Montana under our two previously awarded CORE-CM projects, including producing valuable connections throughout the critical minerals supply chain,” Brown said . “In this new regional phase, we hope to expand on these collaborations and lessons learned to develop resource connectivity and streamline economic growth for a larger portion of the region.”
Other partners in the project, representing industry, academia and government agencies, include the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota; the Kansas Geological Survey; the Oklahoma Geological Survey; Penn State University; the Colorado School of Mines; the University of Texas at Austin; Battelle; Los Alamos National Laboratory; the Colorado Geological Survey; and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Specific research areas will cover basins throughout Wyoming, including the Powder River Basin, North Dakota, Kansas, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
In additional projects under the same grant selection, SER will also support a similar University of Utah-led initiative in the Rocky Mountain Region, which includes western areas of Wyoming, Colorado and Montana, as well as Utah, New Mexico and Idaho; and the Gulf Coast-Permian Basin Project led by the University of Texas at Austin.
“We are pleased that the important work being conducted as part of Phase I of the CORE-CM initiative will continue to expand with the input, expertise and leadership of our incredible research team,” said Scott Quillinan, Senior Director of Research at SER. “Wyoming’s significant basins have been assigned to different regions, so we are excited that our work can continue and have an even greater impact for the country by establishing meaningful development of nationwide supply chains for critical minerals.”
A full list of project selections can be found here.