Request for Information (RFI)-Future Innovation needs for Responsible Mining of Critical Minerals (FIRM-CM) | DE FOA 0003356

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0003356

The Request for Information (RFI) titled "Future Innovation needs for Responsible Mining of Critical Minerals (FIRM-CM)" (Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0003356) is a market and stakeholder input exercise issued by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). It is not a funding opportunity announcement and it is not accepting applications for grants or other financial assistance. In practical terms, ARPA-E is using this RFI to gather ideas, technical perspectives, and feedback that could shape one or more future ARPA-E research programs. The agency is essentially testing the landscape: what technology gaps exist, what approaches look promising, and where targeted federal R and D could make a measurable difference across the critical minerals value chain.

The core focus of the RFI is innovation that enables more responsible and more effective exploration, discovery, appraisal, mining, and processing of critical minerals. ARPA-E signals interest in a wide set of end goals that future programs might pursue, including higher recovery rates of critical minerals, less hazardous mine tailings, lower overall energy use at any or all stages of mineral development, and reduced carbon emissions across those stages. Environmental and community impacts are also explicitly part of the vision, with goals such as minimizing aquifer and broader hydrological disturbance at mining sites and enabling rapid data development and data use to support permitting and mine planning in coordination with governments and local communities. On the operational side, ARPA-E highlights interest in autonomy for remote environments and technologies that unlock resources that are deeper, more diffuse, hotter, lower grade, or otherwise difficult to access with conventional methods.

The motivation for the RFI is framed as both national security and economic resilience. The notice points out that concerns about domestic critical mineral supply are long-standing in the United States, dating back to the U.S. Critical Minerals Stockpiling Act of 1939. Despite that history, the U.S. capacity for mineral exploration and mining has declined over the past several decades, and the country has become increasingly dependent on international supply chains. That dependence is risky in a world where supply can be disrupted by geopolitics, trade restrictions, and competing global demand, especially for minerals that are concentrated in a small number of producing countries.

ARPA-E also emphasizes the growing strategic importance of specific minerals that underpin modern technology and clean energy systems. The RFI lists examples such as nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements, and platinum-group elements. These materials feed a broad range of products and industries, including computing and information services, defense applications, electric vehicle batteries, and other clean energy technologies tied to power generation, storage, and electrified end uses. The notice ties this directly to the energy transition, arguing that moving away from fossil fuels will require large and sustained quantities of these minerals, and that demand is rising quickly.

To illustrate the scale of the demand surge, the RFI cites a specific projection for nickel: global nickel demand from the electric vehicle sector is expected to increase from 92 kilotons in 2020 to 2.6 megatons by 2040. Examples like this are used to make the point that the combination of rapidly rising demand and uncertain supply creates a widening gap that domestic production alone does not currently fill. The RFI further notes that the current global mineral supply base may be insufficient to support a fully electrified transition at the scale envisioned, which strengthens the case for new approaches that can expand accessible resources, improve yields from existing operations, and reduce the environmental footprint of mineral development.

A key theme running through the notice is that meeting future demand may require extracting critical minerals from both conventional and unconventional resources. While the RFI does not prescribe specific technical solutions, it clearly invites responses that address hard problems across the full lifecycle: better subsurface characterization and exploration methods, improved orebody appraisal and mine planning, step-change advances in extraction and comminution, transformative separation and refining approaches, and waste and tailings innovations that reduce hazards and long-term liabilities. The emphasis on autonomy and remote operation also suggests interest in mining concepts that reduce the need for large on-site workforces, improve safety, and make previously uneconomic deposits more viable.

Administratively, this is an ARPA-E RFI under CFDA 81.135, listed with an "unrestricted" eligible applicant field because it is not a competitive funding call. The posting includes no award ceiling and anticipates zero awards, reinforcing that this is strictly a request for input rather than a mechanism to fund projects. The RFI originally closed on 2024-05-14, and the full text is available through the ARPA-E funding opportunity portal at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. The most important takeaway is that ARPA-E is gathering information now to potentially design future programs later, and any eventual funding opportunity would come only through a separate, formal FOA that does not yet exist.

• The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy in the oz, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Request for Information (RFI)-Future Innovation needs for Responsible Mining of Critical Minerals (FIRM-CM)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.135.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-04-16.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-14. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

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