{"id":11974,"date":"2021-09-08T19:24:36","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T19:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/09\/08\/pentagon-seeks-microbe-miners-to-cut-rare-earth-reliance-on-china\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:37:13","slug":"pentagon-seeks-microbe-miners-to-cut-rare-earth-reliance-on-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/industry\/2021\/09\/08\/pentagon-seeks-microbe-miners-to-cut-rare-earth-reliance-on-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon seeks microbe miners to cut rare earth reliance on China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Researchers at the Pentagon have launched a project that aims to extract rare earth minerals critical for military technologies<\/a> from domestic sources \u2015 using microscopic bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The potentially revolutionary biotechnology doesn\u2019t exist yet, but the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to develop it as a step toward ending American dependence on China, the globe\u2019s top supplier of the minerals. DARPA\u2019s director, Stefanie Tompkins<\/a>, said at the Defense News conference Wednesday she would determine whether it\u2019s worthwhile on an industrial scale to use microbes as biofilters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom a DARPA perspective, we\u2019re looking at: what are some of the barriers for the U.S. to maintain dominance in rare earth processing,\u201d said Tompkins, a former Army intelligence officer and geologist who joined DARPA from the Colorado School of Mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DARPA in July launched the Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource, or Ember, a four-year program to leverage advances in microbial and biomolecular engineering to develop what it envisions as a scalable, bio-based separation and purification strategy. It\u2019s aimed at expanding supplies of 17 elements used in magnets for electric motors, high-temperature ceramics and lasers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even have an evaluation of proposals yet, but we\u2019ve done enough early assessment of the science to say the physics and the chemistry that underlies the science make it something that should be possible to be able to demonstrate sufficient scale and the potential to scale up manufacturing to make it worthwhile,\u201d Tompkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biomining uses microorganisms to extract metals from rock ores or mine waste and can be used to clean up sites polluted with metals, according to the American Geosciences Institute<\/a>. When valuable metals like copper, nickel and gold are bound up in solid rock, one biomining technique uses microbes to break down the surrounding minerals and another breaks down the metal itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\t