Enhancing and Diversifying Supply

As CMI begins its third phase of operation in 2023, the CMI focus area Enhancing and Diversifying Supply (which was known as Diversifying Supply during CMI Phase I and Phase II) will conduct research around the themes of Advancing Mineral Characterization and Beneficiation and Innovative Separations and Recoveries. For questions or more information, please contact cmidirector@ameslab.gov.

News & Highlights

All News | All Highlights

Research Highlight

Germanium recovery from a domestic zinc plant

two glass containers with contents labeled, left is separated liquid and right is separated solid

Research Highlight

Treatment of phosphoric acid sludge for economic recovery of rare earths

Comparison of the predominant facets for a predicted and synthesized lanthanum-monazite particle.

Research Highlight

Vital rare earth mineral monazite understanding achieved jointly through theory and experiment

Research Highlight

Simple, cheap sorbent opens door for lithium recovery

composite image: Computer-aided design software that predicts selectivity using a machine learning model and then ranks them based on selectivity is now available on GitHub.

Research Highlight

AI algorithm and dataset for metal-binding selectivity predictions

Research Projects

CMI Project 1.1.10 Enabling lithium mudstone: the nation’s largest lithium resource (Project ELM)

CMI Project 1.1.5 Enhanced domestic extraction of platinum group metals, nickel, copper and cobalt from primary sources

CMI Project 1.1.6 Extraction of rare earth phosphate minerals from primary and secondary sources

CMI Project 1.1.7 Improving beneficiation efficiency via preferential breakage and physical separation

CMI Project 1.1.9 Diversifying lithium supply from brines to hard-rock minerals: mechanochemical extraction of lithium at low temperature (MELLT) from α-Spodumenes

CMI Project 1.2.1 Advanced leaching methods to recover critical materials from mineral sources

CMI Project 1.2.2 Enhancing critical mineral separation for sustainable extraction

CMI Project 1.2.3 Recovery and separation of gallium and germanium from zinc wastes

CMI Project 1.2.4 Total utilization of phosphogypsum waste for production of rare earth elements, fertilizers, and construction materials

CMI Project 1.2.8 Selective separation of platinum group metals, precious metals, and critical elements from selenium crude residue at Kennecott Utah Copperton Concentrator