By-product recovery from US metal mines could reduce import reliance for critical minerals

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Dorit Hammerling, Rod Eggert, Erik Spiller, Priscilla Nelson, and Karlie Hadden write about how the US has sufficient geological endowment in active metal mines to reduce the nation’s dependence on critical mineral imports.  This study uses a statistical evaluation of new geochemical datasets to quantify the critical minerals that are mined annually in US ores but go unrecovered.  August 21, 2025.