South Dakota Mines lands $3.1M in race for rare earth elements

Mining elements critical for batteries, tech and defense industries

South Dakota Mines has been awarded a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to lead a new research effort aimed at developing advanced technologies that could locate and map rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals with greater speed and at a reduced cost. The university’s multidisciplinary research team includes William Roggenthen, Ph.D., professor emeritus of geology and geological engineering, Zhi Ye, Ph.D., assistant professor of geology and geological engineering at Mines and the principal investigator, Kai Ren, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical engineering, Mingyuan Cheng, Ph.D., assistant professor of nanoscience and biomedical engineering.

South Dakota Mines has received a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to lead research aimed at developing technology to locate and map rare earth elements and critical minerals more quickly and at a lower cost.

The grant is part of $72 million in ARPA-E funding for early-stage research projects intended to strengthen domestic magnet manufacturing and secure U.S. supply chains for critical minerals used in energy production, economic development and industry. Those uses include so-called clean energy batteries and components used in the tech and defense industries.