Langeloth Metallurgical chosen for DOE pilot program
Jon Andreassi
Langeloth Metallurgical Facility in Washington County has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to participate in a national pilot-scale materials reclamation program.
The program is designed to develop technology for recovering critical materials, including scandium, copper, antimony and rare earth elements, from industrial feedstock in order to strengthen the domestic supply chain for these materials, according to a release from the Department of Energy (DOE).
Thompson Creek Metals Company USA, which operates the Langeloth metals plant, is one of five companies across the country that were invited to participate in a program to advance their reclamation capacity from prototype to pre-commercial demonstration stage.
Four additional companies were invited to a program to develop their reclamation technology from laboratory demonstration to the prototype stage.
The nine companies will have an opportunity to negotiate for a portion of $162 million in total funding allocated by the DOE for the program.
The final financial award and specific contract details remain to be determined pending future negotiations between Thompson Creek Metals and the DOE, according to Process Engineering and Metallurgy VP Tom Ondrejko.
Ondrejko said that the company views the announcement from DOE as “a positive recognition of the strategic importance of our U.S. Moly assets and their potential role in strengthening domestic critical mineral supply chains. That said, the selection does not change or have a material impact on our core business plan for the US Moly assets.”
Langeloth Metallurgical Facility manufactures a range of specialty molybdenum metal products produced from molybdenum concentrate acquired from third parties, according to Toronto, Canada-based parent company Centerra Gold.
“Leveraging existing bench-scale and pilot-scale facilities is a vital opportunity to produce critical materials necessary for our energy, defense and economic security,” Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said in a statement. “By investing in these facilities, we can de-risk commercial scale production technologies to grow new economic and manufacturing opportunities.”