Federal leaders tour UND rare earths pilot plant
North Dakota has vast reserves of elements critical to electronics, defense and national security, say Washington leaders in campus visit
Last month, congressional and military leadership visited campus to tour a new facility bolstering national security and defense.
On May 26, North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer and Michael Duffy, Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, toured UND’s rare earths pilot plant. The facility, housed in the College of Engineering & Mines, will work to extract rare earth elements from the state’s vast reserves of lignite coal.
Rare earth elements have a range of applications from consumer electronics and semiconductors to defense systems.
Cramer said that developing a domestic supply chain of rare earths is vital, given that China controls much of the global supply chain.
“What people may not know is the critical role North Dakota has the potential to play in becoming less dependent on China for rare earth elements,” Cramer said. “Thanks to North Dakota’s energy industry and the University of North Dakota, we may be unlocking a treasure trove of domestic rare earth element supplies so we can strategically decouple from China.”
Duffey, who oversees military contract administration, logistics and materiel readiness, concurred.
“Sen. Cramer has been ahead of the curve here,” Duffey said. “I’m very eager to understand how we’re getting back to a place where we can be self-sufficient with mining and processing, and the entire value chain.”
UND President Andy Armacost praised UND faculty members’ commitment to furthering the University’s national security mission through initiatives such as the pilot program.
“It’s amazing when the faculty and the staff say, ‘National security? We’re in,’” Armacost told the Grand Forks Herald. “And it doesn’t happen at every university, and so we’re so proud that we have the commitment to pursue areas of research that we know will have literal national benefit.”
The college is also awaiting approval of a $50 million Department of Energy grant, which would be used to fund research and development as well as build a second production facility in western North Dakota to extract rare earths.
Dan Laudal, executive director of the CEM’s Research Institute, said the grant’s approval would allow for a commercial level of extraction and supply of elements including gallium and germanium.
“The next step is figuring out how we scale it up to a meaningful scale, run it long enough continuously at that meaningful scale to really verify all the assumptions around engineering, economics, product qualities and gain that customer confidence to be able to execute agreements for off-take,” Laudal said in the Herald story. “And really support long term financing of full-scale projects.”
Written by Joe Banish // UND Today
