An underground mine provided some welcomed cool on a peak-summer day in the mountains west of Denver, Colorado, for a group of 21 undergraduate interns from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). Outfitted with hard hats, and as gravel crunched under their closed-toed shoes, the … [continued]
Companies Need Critical Minerals for Electronics, Medical Equipment, Crops, and More. These 3 Techniques (and Others) Could Make Some Easier To Get. “The Fast Lane” series zooms in on some of the thousands of technologies born in national laboratories that companies can license today. This iteration focuses on tools and … [continued]
The energy crisis highlights the need to avoid new dependencies for critical raw materials. Stepping up the EU’s ‘minerals diplomacy’ can offer a way forward – if coupled with financial firepower. Every oil crisis exposes how vulnerable Europe is to fossil fuel imports. Switching to renewables and electric vehicles will … [continued]
By Dhruv Soni, Senior Technical Program Manager at Tesla Battery Minerals and Metals, CELI 2025 Fellow In the clean energy boom of the 2020s, the United States has continued to lead the world in early-stage innovation, especially across next-generation chemical process industries such as carbon capture, hydrogen and ammonia, sustainable … [continued]
ChatGPT generated scene showing the gap between AUV fleet concepts and real world deepwater constraints, with defunct AUVs on the seafloor under operational ones.
I was pleased to be asked to complete the technoeconomic assessment of seabed mining by the National Ocean Protection Coalition and to join the webinar discussing its results. It is not often that I have the opportunity to bring together decades of work in complex systems analysis, technology readiness, and … [continued]
How Europe should finance transition mineral projects effectively and responsibly. As Europe accelerates its efforts to secure the supply of critical raw materials vital for clean energy technologies, including batteries, ensuring diverse supply chains will be key. Several initiatives such as Strategic Partnerships, Clean Trade & Investment Partnerships, Global Gateway … [continued]
A team searches for seaweed samples on the shore of Moira Bay, Alaska. Photo by Stefanie Van Wychen, NREL.
Some Seaweeds Accumulate Critical Minerals. NREL Scientists Are Studying Which Ones Do It Best Seaweed: the phyto(mining) frontier? Puns aside, seaweed is emerging as a surprising mining source. NREL chemist Stefanie Van Wychen and a team of five departed Juneau, Alaska, on an early spring—and surprisingly green—April morning. The crew … [continued]
chatgpt generated panoramic illustration of deep-sea mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, showing a crawler harvesting polymetallic nodules from the ocean floor with a riser pipe carrying slurry to a ship 4 km above
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with a global expert on minerals processing and battery minerals, Lyle Trytten. We were closing out an engagement to do a technoeconomic assessment of seabed mining and it was a great opportunity to discuss the space and some of the things we … [continued]
When President Donald Trump issued an executive order this summer promoting deep sea mining — which is currently prohibited under international law — he didn’t take into account the creatures that live on the seabed floor. Thousands of meters below sea level in deep black waters, marine animals survive without … [continued]
A geologist and geophysicist at Talon examine high-grade nickel core samples from the company’s exploration operations in Minnesota. (Image by Talon Metals.)
By Julia Poliscanova, Senior Director for Emobility and Supply Chains at T&E, and Tommy Pratama, Executive Director for Traction Energy Asia Indonesia is big when it comes to the new race to secure minerals and cleantech. With some of the world’s largest reserves of metals like nickel and cobalt, the country is fuelling … [continued]
