Over the last year, and really the last six months, we have seen a focus from institutions and government agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Interior on how the United States can use secondary sources to help develop a domestic supply chain for critical minerals.

Section 1412 of the FY2026 NDAA expands the Strategic Materials Recovery and Reuse Program for recycling and recovery of critical minerals. The DOI issued a Secretary’s Order to streamline regulations on recovery from mine waste. All of this points toward material recovery as part of the strategy to reduce the dependence on foreign critical minerals.

When it comes to the Department of Energy, the agency long positioned as the primary source of funding and guidance for critical materials, is now taking a back seat. They are providing funding to expand and develop materials from secondary sources, but most of this targets new technologies and pilot programs rather than commercial scale facilities.

After Ascend Elements and a few other projects, it seems that outside of nuclear and fossil fuels, the current administration’s DOE has lost its appetite for funding projects that utilize unconventional resources.

But beyond funding, for lithium-ion recycling, there is a problem buried in federal waste regulations, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) stated:

End-of-life batteries and scrap materials are largely sent overseas, often to China, for processing. Our own regulatory scheme under RCRA is contributing to this.

The way these rules are written, they inadvertently promote, due to financial reasons, the export of much-needed battery materials instead of allowing them to be recovered and reused in the US, creating both economic and national security concerns.

This is a real-world example of how one outfit, American Battery Technology Company, is running into that regulatory wall.

ABTC:

We had asked about requirements for a destination facility on our last call, is there any further information on this process?

Critical Materials Bulletin

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