DARPA News July 12, 2023
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) comprise 17 elements, including scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanide series. REE extraction, separation, and purification from a complex feedstock can be environmentally degrading, energy inefficient, and difficult to permit in the United States. DARPA is sponsoring a hybrid workshop, to be held on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 to provide an overview and facilitate technical discussion regarding the Separation and Purification of Rare Earth Elements (SPREE) Advanced Research Concept (ARC) opportunity. The SPREE ARC opportunity is soliciting ideas to explore the following question: How can we purify Department of Defense (DoD)-relevant REEs using environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient, and commercially viable techniques that can be incorporated by the U.S. domestic mining sector? The goal of the SPREE workshop is to support researchers with great new ideas by providing governmental and industry insight into the field and information about how to apply for the SPREE opportunity. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, the United States was the world’s major supplier of REEs; today, it imports nearly 100% of REEs used in commercial products and exports some domestically mined REE minerals for economic processing overseas. Registration closes Monday, July 24, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. EDT… read more. Workshop details    Registration information.
Credit: DARPA