The Reliable Ore Characterization with Keystone Sensing (ROCKS) program is designed to develop tools to evaluate the feasibility of an ore deposit in months, rather than years.
Donor Name: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/25/2025
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
Rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals are essential for modern energy technologies. REEs are key to high-performance magnets, motors, superconductors, catalysts, transmission, and conversion systems necessary for U.S. energy security. Affordable and secure domestic critical mineral supply chains will advance future energy competitiveness. The U.S. possesses significant domestic resources of REEs and other critical minerals but operates only one productive REE mine.
The development of new mines is a multistage process that typically requires years to complete. Prospect evaluation and feasibility assessment of a hard rock mine can alone take years or even decades. This will enable rapid scoping of alternate and untapped resources. By accelerating and improving characterization, the program will enable earlier, more accurate, and lower-cost deposit assessments. A transformative increase in this capability will aid not only the development of abundant domestic REE deposits, but that of all critical minerals. Lower-cost, accurate resource characterization will enable more productive mining with less waste rock and streamline the entire mineral processing and refining supply chain.
The ROCKS program seeks fundamentally disruptive technologies to transform the ore deposit characterization process. The program will pursue technology that targets order of-magnitude improvements in characterization with a primary focus on drilling, sensing, and analysis. These advances will shorten the timeline for feasibility assessments of REE and critical mineral deposits, leading to increased access to these resources. In addition, advances in sensing can aid assessment of currently untapped resources, such as seafloor mineral deposits.
Technical Categories of Interest
- Category A: Drilling Technology
- Category B: Sensing and Analysis
- Category C: Other.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $40,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $5,000,000
- Award Floor: $2,000,000.
Grant Period
June 2026 – June 2029.
Eligibility Criteria
This NOFO is open to U.S. Institutions of Higher Education, national laboratories, industry and individuals.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
