Building a Reliable and Secure Rare Earth Supply Chain for America

The University of Washington (UW), in partnership with StrategicREM, is developing a new collaboration that will assist and support US-Malaysia rare earth projects.

A team of investigators at the UW is applying to the US Department of Energy (DOE) to establish a University-Based Industrial Training and Assessment Center (ITAC), through ENERGYWERX. The overall goal of the proposed UW ITAC program of the DOE is to improve manufacturing capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in strategic areas, while training engineering students in applied energy and manufacturing skills relevant to global prosperity and areas of key technological advancements. The title of the proposed UW program is “Industrial Training and Assessment Center at the University of Washington (UW ITAC)” and the principal focus is Manufacturing, Mining and Mineral Processing (MMM). This program is multi-departmental and involves a collaboration of faculty at the UW within the departments of Materials Science and Engineering (ECE) and Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Most notably, the team involves UW ITAC Director, Prof. Alexander Mamishev of ECE and Prof. Dwayne Arola of MSE, which have experience in mining ores and the relevant methods of extracting rare earth elements.

The University of Washington (UW) has been hosting DOE funded assessment centers for two terms, including from 2006 to 2011, and then again from 2021 to 2026. Based on this experience and the evolving international landscape, one of the new and exciting thrusts in the new ITAC installment is to develop collaborations with international partners that are interested in harnessing new materials processing and mining technology.  A complimentary goal of this program is to provide industrial training on these technologies to the current and next generation of scientists and engineers.

The ITAC center on manufacturing, mining and minerals processing at the UW is both strategic and firmly grounded in experience.  The UW founded its School of Mining Engineering in 1893 and granted mining degrees until 1976, and the U.S. Bureau of Mines ran its Northwest station on the UW campus from 1916 to 1964. The vision is to build on the mining engineering legacy of the MSE department at the UW and capitalize on the new landscape of mining and materials synthesis to reawaken the spirit and increase focus on sustainable mining practices. The new ITAC principals are welcoming new collaborations and interested partners.