Topic #: CW26-T01 · Branch: DOE · Status: Open
This topic seeks small-business-led R&D projects that establish a direct technical and commercial connection between a feedstock provider and a processing technology developer to produce a defined intermediate material for specialty metal or specialty alloy production. Each proposal must focus on one mineral or secondary-resource system, one feedstock provider, a defined target element or set of co-products, and one overall processing objective. Responsive projects may address, for example, vanadium-bearing feedstocks; zirconand hafnium-bearing heavy mineral sands; bauxite residue or red mud; slags, tailings, residues, or other underutilized mineral streams that can be processed into intermediates for use in specialty-grade materials for energy, defense, aerospace, nuclear, semiconductor, grid, industrial, or high-performance alloy supply chains. Vanadium, hafnium, and zirconium are included on the 2025 U.S. Critical Minerals List - which reflects supply-risk and national/economic security considerations - and are representative of the small global markets targeted by this topic. Proposals addressing other target elements or minerals with comparable global market sizes are also responsive.
Posted: 10/30/2026 · Opens: 10/30/2026
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This topic seeks small-business-led R&D projects that establish a direct technical and commercial connection between a feedstock provider and a processing technology developer to produce a defined intermediate material for specialty metal or specialty alloy production. Each proposal must focus on one mineral or secondary-resource system, one feedstock provider, a defined target element or set of co-products, and one overall processing objective. Responsive projects may address, for example, vanadium-bearing feedstocks; zirconand hafnium-bearing heavy mineral sands; bauxite residue or red mud; slags, tailings, residues, or other underutilized mineral streams that can be processed into intermediates for use in specialty-grade materials for energy, defense, aerospace, nuclear, semiconductor, grid, industrial, or high-performance alloy supply chains. Vanadium, hafnium, and zirconium are included on the 2025 U.S. Critical Minerals List - which reflects supply-risk and national/economic security considerations - and are representative of the small global markets targeted by this topic. Proposals addressing other target elements or minerals with comparable global market sizes are also responsive.
The motivation is to initiate practical processing activity for “small market” minerals that may be strategically important but are often overlooked because they are byproducts of primary production, technically complex, available only in limited volumes, or not yet connected to a qualified downstream customer. The desired Phase I outcome is not a full pilot plant or commercial facility. Rather, a successful project should create a credible bridge among a feedstock owner, a processor or separations technology developer, and, where feasible, a downstream producer or customer that converts the intermediate into, or uses it to produce, an application-qualified specialty metal or alloy.
Priority areas of interest are: (1) processing of a real, characterized feedstock into a specialtymetal-ready intermediate; (2) validation of the chemistry, mass balance, impurity profile, and preliminary product specification; and (3) establishment of a documented commitment between the raw material provider and the technology developer to continue scale-up if technical milestones are met.
Goals and Metrics Applicants should clearly define the “pure” or upgraded form of material needed before it can enter specialty metal production. Depending on the mineral system, target products may include, but are not limited to, vanadium pentoxide, ammonium metavanadate, ammonium polyvanadate, or another vanadium precursor suitable for ferrovanadium, vanadium alloy, or vanadium metal production; zirconium oxychloride, zirconium oxide, zirconium tetrachloride, hafnium-reduced zirconium intermediate, or another zirconium precursor suitable for specialty zirconium metal production; or hafnium oxide, hafnium oxychloride, hafnium tetrachloride, or another hafnium precursor suitable for hafnium metal, superalloy, plasma cutting, or nuclear applications. USGS identifies zircon as the principal economic source of
zirconium and the primary source of hafnium; it also notes that zircon commonly occurs as a coproduct or byproduct of heavy-mineral-sands processing and that zirconium and hafnium occur together in zircon at roughly a 50:1 ratio. Comparable intermediate products from other mineral systems are also responsive where they meet the requirements of an identified specialtymetal, or specialty-alloy application.
Key R&D innovations sought include beneficiation, separation, extraction, impurity control, and intermediate-product finishing methods that can be demonstrated at bench scale using a real feedstock supplied by a resource provider. Technologies may include physical beneficiation, gravity separation, magnetic or electrostatic separation, flotation, roasting, acid or alkaline leaching, chlorination, carbochlorination, solvent extraction, ion exchange, selective precipitation, crystallization, calcination, hydrometallurgical flowsheets, pyrometallurgical upgrading, or hybrid processes. For a Phase I effort applicants should scope work around achievable outcomes: signed letter of support or feedstock access commitment; representative sample acquisition; independent feedstock characterization; bench-scale processing tests; production of gramto kilogram-scale intermediate material, as appropriate; assay of the intermediate; preliminary impurity-removal strategy; mass balance; reagent and energy estimates; waste and water considerations; and a Phase II plan for larger sample processing, customer qualification, or pilot-scale validation.
Not of Interest Projects are out of scope if they propose broad critical minerals exploration, geologic resource mapping, market studies, or literature reviews without processing real feedstock. Also out of scope are proposals that pursue multiple unrelated feedstocks, multiple unrelated elements, or “recover everything” approaches without a single defined target intermediate and measurable product specification. Projects using only synthetic feedstocks, simulated ores, reagent screening unconnected to a named resource provider, or generic separations chemistry without a clear mineral source would not meet the objectives of this topic.
This topic does not seek mining equipment development, final alloy development, enduse component testing, battery or electrolyte formulation, bulk commodity production, or construction of a full processing facility. Cementitious reuse of red mud, construction-material applications, or waste stabilization without specialty metal recovery are not responsive. Routine contract analytical services, general consulting, equipment purchases without technical innovation, or projects that cannot identify a specific feedstock provider and credible downstream use case are also out of scope.
References 1. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, 90 Fed. Reg. 50,494 (Nov. 7, 2025), https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/07/2025-19813/final-2025- list-of-critical-minerals. 2. U.S. Geological Survey, Zirconium and Hafnium Statistics and Information, https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-informationcenter/zirconium-and-hafnium-statistics-and-information (last visited Aug. 7, 2026). 3. James V. Jones III, Nadine M. Piatak & George M. Bedinger, Zirconium and Hafnium, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1802–V (2017), https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1802V. 4. U.S. Geological Survey, Vanadium Statistics and Information, https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-informationcenter/vanadium-statistics-and-information (last visited Aug. 7, 2026).
5. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, 2023 DOE Critical Materials Assessment (2023), https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/doe-criticalmaterial-assessment_07312023.pdf. 6. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, What Are Critical Minerals and Materials?, https://www.energy.gov/cmm/what-are-critical-minerals-andmaterials (last visited Aug. 7, 2026). 7. U.S. Geological Survey, Critical Mineral Resources in Heavy Mineral Sands of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain (June 26, 2019), https://www.usgs.gov/centers/gggsc/science/critical-mineral-resources-heavymineral-sands-us-atlantic-coastal-plain. 8. Bradley S. Van Gosen et al., Deposit Model for Heavy-Mineral Sands in Coastal Environments, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5070–L (2014), https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20105070L. 9. Bridget R. Scanlon et al., Gulf Coast Basin CORE-CM Initiative Final Report, Technical Report DOE-Univ-TX-BEG-000236-14 (Univ. of Tex. at Austin, Bureau of Econ. Geology 2025), https://doi.org/10.2172/3009720. 10. U.S. Env’t Prot. Agency, TENORM: Bauxite and Alumina Production Wastes (May 4, 2026), https://www.epa.gov/radiation/tenorm-bauxite-and-alumina-production-wastes.