The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) this week selected four projects for $73 million in funding through DOE’s Mine of the Future initiative to establish domestic testing grounds for innovative mining technologies.
The projects will accelerate the commercialization of mining technologies, upgrade domestic mining capabilities, and build on the US’ mission to secure America’s critical minerals supply chains, CMEI said.
“Investing in moving cutting-edge mining technologies out of the lab and into the field will help unleash America’s vast mineral resources,” US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a news release.
“These investments will prove that American innovation can redefine what’s possible in modern mining,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. “By establishing world class testing grounds, we’re accelerating breakthroughs that will strengthen our supply chains, our workforce, and our national competitiveness.”
DOE’s Advanced Mining and Mineral Processing Technologies Office selected Lynchburg-headquartered Innovative Wireless Technologies, with project locations in Julian and Blacksburg, West Virginia and Idaho Springs, Colorado.
This project aims to create a national testbed to accelerate the development and deployment of advanced mining technologies that enhance safety, productivity, and supply chain resilience. The effort will combine underground and surface mining environments to validate next-generation digital, connectivity, and automation solutions in real-world conditions.
University of Arizona also made the list for its project location in Sahuarita, which will create a nationally accessible underground testbed to speed up the development and deployment of advanced mining, electrification, and energy management technologies.
Also selected are Curators of the University of Missouri, HQ and project location in Rolla, with plans to create a multi functional mining technology proving ground that combines two complementary facilities for underground technology testing and advanced comminution research. Curators of the University of Missouri will design, build, and equip this national resource to support innovation, real world validation, and workforce development for next generation mining technologies.
Southern Methodist University, with HQ in Dallas and project location in Navasota, Texas will create the world’s first synthetic mine within an advanced drilling and sensing test facility to accelerate next generation mining technologies from lab concepts to field ready deployment. By repurposing a highly instrumented Texas drilling site, it will enable rigorous, repeatable, and safe testing of mining tools, workflows, and automation systems, the DOE said.
These projects, it said, will develop mining proving grounds and also support R&D projects that accelerate the progression of technologies from laboratories to testing and demonstration in a field-scale setting, an essential step to de-risk commercial adoption.
