News: Suppliers
16 April 2026
US Critical Materials and Columbia University to advance domestic recovery of defense-critical metals from red mud
Private rare-earths exploration and process development company US Critical Materials Corp (USCM) of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and Columbia University have signed a two-year sponsored research agreement seeking to advance scientific pathways that enable the development of future US production of gallium, scandium, titanium and rare-earth elements from red mud, a major byproduct of aluminium refining.
The USA is fully import-dependent for gallium and scandium, which are essential to secure communications, advanced semiconductors, directed-energy systems, hypersonics, and next-generation aerospace platforms. The program ‘Mud To Metal’ will be led by Greeshma Gadikota, Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change at the Columbia Climate School, Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering at the Columbia Engineering School and director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia.
Exhibit A of the agreement notes that red mud contains elevated concentrations of these metals and that the project aims to develop intensified recovery technologies and advance them toward potential field-scale deployment.
USCM and Columbia will investigate red mud from various locations for characterization and process-development activities, including from locations operated by Alcoa.
“Gallium and scandium are strategic choke points for the US defense and aerospace industrial base,” says USCM executive chairman Harvey Kaye. “This agreement with Columbia positions us to build the scientific foundation for a future domestic supply,” he adds.
“Our team is focused on rigorous, environmentally responsible pathways for recovering critical metals from complex materials,” says Gadikota, principal investigator. “Red mud presents a significant opportunity to strengthen US resource security through innovation.”
The program includes mineralogical characterization, ambient-temperature oxidative leaching, selective separations, co-recovery of titanium dioxide and iron oxide, and techno-economic and life-cycle modeling.
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