Experts tell House panel long-term, strategic federal investment is needed to secure critical minerals and revive geometallurgy
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Summary
Academic and National Lab witnesses urged a coordinated national critical-mineral strategy, sustained funding for hubs like DOE's CMI, and renewed geometallurgy research to recover byproduct and mine-waste sources that could supply many needed elements.
Dr. Elizabeth Holly, a professor in mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, told the subcommittee that the United States needs a systematic national critical-mineral strategy to guide research and investment across multiple supply pathways.
"For each of the 60 critical minerals, we have 6 supply pathways," Holly said, naming imports, recycling, new mines, byproduct recovery, mine-waste reprocessing and demand reduction. She argued that a deliberate, element-by-element prioritization would let federal investment "move the needle" where it can have the quickest and largest effect.
Holly emphasized geometallurgy ' the integrated science linking geology, mineralogy, processing and data science ' as an immediate lever. "If the U.S. recovered just 15% of each byproduct element that we currently throw away during mining, we could secure the supply of about 40 elements," she testified, and recommended long-term center-style funding for mining schools and cross-agency collaboration (she cited DOE and NSF funding relationships during her remarks).
Tom Al Grasso, director of DOE's Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI) at Ames National Laboratory, described CMI's coordinated work across diversifying supply, substitutes, secondary-source unlocking and recycling. He highlighted laboratory advances now licensed to industry, including a protein-based rare-earth separations approach ("landmodulin") and an acid-free rare-earth metal process (REMAFs). Al Grasso reported that CMI has produced more than 225 invention disclosures, 72 U.S. patents, 45 licensed technologies and attracted about $160,000,000 in public and private investment.
Members pressed witnesses on workforce and university-lab partnerships. Holly and Al Grasso said sustained, predictable funding is critical to retain multidisciplinary teams and train students; Holly said many U.S. mining faculties are small and that a sustained funding model like CMI's would help rebuild capacity.
No formal policy or statute was enacted at the hearing; witnesses' recommendations were offered to inform congressional funding and oversight decisions. The committee left the record open for 10 days for additional written questions and comments.
