Cedar Park — The City Council on Jan. 9 approved a $300,000 performance-based grant to Element USA Accelerator to support a research-and-development accelerator that will focus on mineral extraction and recycling of rare earth elements.

Arthur Jackson, the city’s chief economic development officer, described the project — identified as Project Mineral Transfer and operating under the Element USA name — as an R&D accelerator to research mineral extraction from tailings, waste materials and low-grade ores. Jackson said the company plans to sublease roughly 25,000 square feet at 1200 BMC Drive in Cedar Park and commit to hiring 48 full-time employees, mostly skilled engineers and scientists, and to complete about $7.2 million in buildout.

Jackson said the facility would partner with the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas for research collaboration and workforce pipelines. Council members asked whether the facility would perform full mineral-extraction processing on site and whether there were safety concerns for residents. Jackson replied that the Cedar Park site would be for R&D only; any downstream processing would occur elsewhere, chemicals would be used in trace amounts, process water would be contained and trucked off-site for disposal, and the fire marshal and development services staff had raised no concerns in prior meetings.

A motion to approve the resolution authorizing the performance-based economic development agreement passed unanimously.

Why it matters: The project aims to advance research on recycling and domestic supply of rare earth minerals, which Jackson called important to national-security and advanced-technology supply chains. The company’s lease, hiring commitments and buildout were conditions of the performance-based grant.

Next steps: Element USA will proceed with its sublease and buildout and must meet the performance conditions tied to the grant for disbursement.