Crosscutting Research Research Highlights

Reconciling diverging views on mineral depletion - a modified cumulative availability curve applied to copper resources

CMI researchers at Colorado School of Mines found diverging views on mineral depletion using a modified cumulative availability curve applied to copper resources

Modified Cumulative Availability Curve integrating copper reserves and resources. The vertical axis indicates the estimated extraction cost in different countries. The horizontal axis indicates remaining contained copper from known deposits.

Finding optimal conditions for bioleaching lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathode materials

CMI researchers are finding optimal conditions for bioleaching Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LCO) cathode materials

Bar graph compares the projected global warming impact of different leaching approaches.

Contribution to book on gallium oxide and related alloys

CMI research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been published in a book chapter summarizing state-of-the-art theoretical understanding of point defects in gallium oxide

Survey of donor dopants reported

Characterization of suitable donor dopants in ultrawide bandgap (Alx,Ga1-x)2O3 (AlGO)

Calculated charge-state transition levels for candidate donor dopants shown with respect to the conduction band edge in (AlxGa1-x)2O3 alloys, shown as a function of Al content.

Development of permanent magnets using low cost mischmetal

CMI research at Ames Laboratory used high-throughput (HiTp) synthesis and rapid characterization to identify permanent magnet alloy compositions with decreased critical material content, and was accepted for publication in ACS Combinatorial Science.

High-throughput (HiTp) synthesis and rapid characterization was used to identify permanent magnet alloy compositions with decreased critical material content.

Mines graduate research in biogeochemistry

Olivia Salmon earned master of science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Mines, December 2020. Thesis: “Impacts of Rare Earth Elements on Biological Wastewater Treatment Processes”

Continuous bioreactors inoculated with sludge from Denver’s Metro Wastewater Reclamation District.

Chinese policies toward rare earths, 1975-2018

Review of original Chinese documents, along with contemporaneous assessments of global rare earth markets and overall Chinese industrial policies

Optimizing the economic performance of CMI technologies

Paper “Applying Design of Experiments to Evaluate Market Opportunity for Bioleaching Rare-Earth Elements from Waste Materials” for CIRP Life Cycle Engineering Conference

Evaluating toxicity of new extractants

CMI researchers evaluate toxicity of new extractants

CMI study published in Nature Sustainability

Nature Sustainability published a study by CMI researchers at Yale University