(TRACE - Ga) - Technology for Recovery and Advanced Critical-material Extraction – Gallium

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX — plans to release a funding opportunity focused on establishing a secure and independent domestic supply chain for gallium, a critical material for the energy, defense, and semiconductor sectors. This initiative seeks innovative and economically viable technologies for gallium recovery from U.S. metal processing feedstocks. This initiative supports the Trump administration’s commitment to enhance U.S. supply chain security by fostering the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies that will broaden the U.S. critical materials portfolio and reduce our dependency on foreign sources.

Under the TRACE-Ga initiative, projects will test and validate prototype technologies with a goal of producing at least 50 kg of pure gallium from at least one 14-day campaign of continuous operation with a real-world metal industry processing stream, such as aluminum or zinc. The objective is to validate a prototype that is capable of producing at least 1 metric ton per annum scale of gallium. Successful projects will restart domestic primary gallium recovery for the first time in almost 40 years.

Applicants to the TRACE-Ga funding opportunity must qualify as a domestic entity.

Eligible applicants will be asked to provide:  

• Evidence of success for recovering gallium from feedstock similar to the proposed metal industry process stream;  
• A letter of support from any company, agency, or other party that has ownership/rights to any proposed feedstock materials, where applicable; and
• Description of the potential for scale-up at the initial metal industry processing stream and market adoption beyond the initial metal industry processing stream source.

Click here to read the full DOE announcement for more information

To participate, technology developers and industrial host sites must apply jointly; technology developers without a planned host site will not be eligible to apply. However, to facilitate connections between technology developers and potential host sites, DOE is facilitating a teaming partner list where interested parties may provide their contact information.

• Sign up for the Teaming Partner List: Click Here to Sign Up
• View the List and contact potential partners here (password: “TRACEGA”): Click Here to View Potential Partners

To participate in future opportunities, sign up for the topics that interest you from the list below.

• Click Here to Sign Up for Extractions Related to Gallium‍
• Click Here to Sign Up for Critical Minerals and Innovative Extraction