{"id":110036,"date":"2026-06-02T15:56:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/?p=110036"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:56:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:56:52","slug":"federal-leaders-tour-und-rare-earths-pilot-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/2026\/06\/federal-leaders-tour-und-rare-earths-pilot-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal leaders tour UND rare earths pilot plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-110037\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/260526-rare-earths-9801-web.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Cramer, David Straley, Dan Laudal and Michael Duffey stand in conversation, person in foreground taking notes\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/260526-rare-earths-9801-web.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/260526-rare-earths-9801-web-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/260526-rare-earths-9801-web-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/uletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/55\/260526-rare-earths-9801-web-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Last month, congressional and military leadership visited campus to tour a new facility bolstering national security and defense.<\/p>\n<p>On May 26, North Dakota U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer and Michael Duffy, Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, toured UND\u2019s rare earths pilot plant. The facility, housed in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/engineering.und.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>College of Engineering &amp; Mines<\/strong><\/a>, will work to extract rare earth elements from the state\u2019s vast reserves of lignite coal.<\/p>\n<p>Rare earth elements have a range of applications from consumer electronics and semiconductors to defense systems.<\/p>\n<p>Cramer said that developing a domestic supply chain of rare earths is vital, given that China controls much of the global supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Cramer said. \u201cThanks to North Dakota\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/2026\/06\/federal-leaders-tour-und-rare-earths-pilot-plant\/\"><strong>Read the full post at UND Today<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Dakota has vast reserves of elements critical to electronics, defense and national security, say Washington leaders in campus visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":110037,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[523],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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