Missouri mining companies and scientists are working to strengthen domestic supply chains of critical minerals like cobalt, gallium and germanium by tapping into industrial waste and re-mining historic sites. With fluctuations affecting two major suppliers of these minerals, local initiatives have brought Missouri to the forefront of addressing the national challenges.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo recently restricted exports of cobalt, one of the key components of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, computers, phones and smartwatches. The United States consumed 8,500 metric tons of cobalt in 2024, with 76% of it imported, according to the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025.
Two companies, US Strategic Metals and The Doe Run Company, are running two different projects to produce cobalt in Missouri.
Kwame Awuah-Offei, professor of mining and explosives engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been working closely with the companies and believes both have made significant progress.
“Those are the two initiatives ongoing in Missouri today that could fill the gap,” Awuah-Offei said.
The primary import sources of cobalt for the U.S. are Norway, Finland and Canada. Currently, the Congo supplies 76% of the world's total cobalt production. Awuah-Offei said that any initiative taken by the Congo will have implications in the market.
“Now, if what they do ends up driving the price of cobalt, it might be beneficial to operators in the United States and Missouri,” Awuah-Offei said. “Because then our projects will be competitive on a price level.”
China imposed an export ban on gallium and germanium to the U.S. in December. These critical minerals are essential for semiconductors, circuit chips, defense systems and fiber optic technologies.
Michael Moats, chair of materials science and engineering at Missouri S&T, said that about 50% of U.S. imports of germanium come from China.
“That puts a significant burden on the United States, potentially,” Moats said. “So there’s a lot of movement inside the federal government looking at sourcing of materials for defense and economic purposes.”
In November, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that a complete halt in these exports could result in a $3.4 billion loss in U.S. gross domestic product.
Lana Alagha, an associate professor of mining and explosives engineering at Missouri S&T, believes this estimate underscores the nation’s heavy reliance on Chinese sources.
“In response to these supply challenges, Missouri is taking proactive measures,” Alagha said in an email. “Missouri S&T has received several awards to develop innovative methods for extracting gallium and germanium from mining waste, including copper slags, copper smelter dust, and tailings from the tristate district.”
Missouri ranked 10th in the United States for nonfuel mineral production, with a total value of $3.16 billion, accounting for 2.99% of the national total in 2024, according to the March 2025 Mineral Commodity Summaries.
Alan Spell, a professor researching regional economic development at the University of Missouri Extension, thinks recent tariffs could make domestic production even more important.
“Tariffs raise the price of imports,” Spell said in an email. “So domestic mining production can benefit if the competing minerals can be extracted in a timely, scalable manner that is cheaper than the import alternative.”
Awuah-Offei believes the tariffs are designed to protect domestic production and manufacturing.
“In theory, they should encourage domestic production of critical minerals,” Awuah-Offei said. “However, if they result in companies importing processed goods to avoid paying tariffs on critical minerals, it will only disadvantage manufacturers who source critical minerals domestically.”
For example, Awuah-Offei said that if companies respond to the tariffs by importing finished products made with those critical minerals, like semiconductors from Taiwan that aren't subject to tariffs, instead of importing the raw minerals like gallium from China that are subject to tariffs, it creates an uneven ground for local miners.
Following the recent 10% increase, the total tariff on Chinese-origin cobalt now stands at 35%. The tariffs do not target specific minerals, said Awuah-Offei.
However, the White House issued an executive order that addresses potential tariffs on critical minerals. The Department of Commerce has asked the public for comments by issuing a request for information, which closed on May 16. No new tariffs or restrictions have been enacted since then.
A path to producing gallium and germanium
Missouri S&T is conducting a project that involves extracting gallium and germanium from zinc leach residue produced from a process that starts with steel recycling.
The project has been investigating advanced extraction methods, such as solvent extraction and ion exchange, since 2022 and is continuing into 2026. Alagha, the project lead, indicated the possibility of an extension.
“While traditionally considered a waste, ZLR is now being explored as a secondary resource for critical metals recovery, offering a potential pathway to boost domestic production of gallium and germanium,” Alagha said.
The research team is currently examining materials from a zinc plant in North Carolina, operated by Befesa Zinc Metal.
The project is funded by the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, U.S. DOE Energy Innovation Hub, led by Ames National Laboratory. Moats, also the area lead of CMI, thinks they have found a way to selectively capture germanium.
“We have run some solutions from the plant here in our lab. It seems it looks promising, and we're getting ready to do a continuous test to prove out the technology,” Moats said. “Ideally, if it's successful, then we would work with the company to find, hopefully, a source of funding to do a larger-scale demonstration.”
However, Moats said, to date, the team hasn't found a good way to extract gallium yet and needs more testing and time to implement the full-scale project.
The U.S. consumed 19 metric tons of gallium and 33,000 kilograms of germanium in 2024, all of it imported, according to the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025.
Moats described the significance of these minerals in modern technology and their impact on everyday life. Gallium is essential for smartphones, enabling Bluetooth and 5G connectivity. It is also used in LED lighting and solar panels. Germanium is vital for high-speed internet and communication, as it is used in fiber optic cables. It also contributes to infrared optics, which are important for defense applications, and is used in semiconductors that power everything from computers to satellites, according to Moats.
Scientists are also exploring historic mining waste in northeast Oklahoma, southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas, hoping to recover gallium, germanium and zinc. Moats and his team started this part of the project in 2023 and are working through what's technically feasible.
“If that becomes successful, then that material is in the northeast corner of Oklahoma. So you could build up a facility, either in Oklahoma or southwest Missouri, around the Joplin area to process that material,” Moats said. “You would probably be pre-producing some zinc, you'd be producing some germanium and gallium, and maybe some other materials. And so there would be benefits for the people in that part of the state.”
Targeting cobalt production
US Strategic Metals is advancing a critical mineral production project in Fredericktown at the rehabilitated Madison mine site. The project is focused on producing cobalt, nickel, copper and lithium.
The company has remediated a Superfund site and got an administrative order of consent to re-mine the existing tailings. USSM has already built a flotation concentrator on-site that has begun producing a mixed metal concentrate. The demonstration plant has been operational for three years and is being used for process development and to advance its hydrometallurgical processing capabilities, as stated by USSM.
Michael R. Hollomon II, commercial director at US Strategic Metals, said that the company’s goal from the very beginning was to extract high-cobalt mixed metal concentrate.
“It has cobalt, nickel and copper, since they’re about 1-to-1-to-1, the ratio of the metals, we consider it a primary cobalt mine,” Hollomon said. “So it’s one of the largest near-term mines in North America, definitely in the United States.”
Last year, the United States produced 300 metric tons of cobalt from domestic mines, reflecting a 40% decrease from levels produced in 2022 and 2023. The country has a reserve of 70,000 metric tons and the identified cobalt resources of the country are estimated to be about 1 million tons, as mentioned in the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025.
USSM plans to begin producing 11,000 tons of cobalt per year by the second quarter of 2026. In the long run, the firm looks to promote circular hydrometallurgy by incorporating recycled lithium-ion battery material, also known as black mass, as a complementary feedstock for its process, said Hollomon.
“We’ll make cobalt rounds 99.99% purity,” Hollomon said. “Then, six months after we start, early 2027, we're going to be doing black mass, which is the battery material.”
To date, USSM has raised over $400 million, with more than $265 million already invested in the project, deputy commercial director Darren Chapman said in an email. Currently, USSM employs approximately 55 people on the project. The facility is expected to create 1,000 direct and 1,100 indirect jobs in the rural region.
The total estimated value of cobalt consumed in 2024 was $260 million, 51% was used in superalloys, mainly aircraft gas turbine engines, as mentioned in the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025.
Awuah-Offei believes Missouri has significant potential to be a major player in this space, not just as a miner or producer of metals.
“The more we can attract the actual manufacturing to the state of Missouri, the better it will be for Missouri,” Awuah-Offei said. “So that we are not just a raw material producer, but we can upgrade and add value to the products before it leaves Missouri.”
Experts seek to address environmental risks
As mining activity expands in Missouri, environmental risks also become a rising concern among researchers and environmental scientists, urging effective regulation and oversight.
Awuah-Offei thinks regulating metal mining is not new for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“If we get more of this activity, the Missouri DNR should be equipped appropriately with staffing, so they can handle the increased regulatory load that they will be under,” Awuah-Offei said.
Awuah-Offei highlighted the importance of addressing environmental issues early, rather than finding violations after they have occurred.
Doe Run Resources Corp. spent $65 million to address violations of environmental laws at 10 of its facilities in southeast Missouri, as announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency and Missouri Department of Natural Resources in October 2010.
Mariam Al-Lami, a postdoctoral fellow specializing in mining waste at Missouri S&T, suggests that companies have an environmental impact assessment and a management strategy to remediate its waste.
“The tailings they generate — usually tons of mine waste left after the extraction of economic minerals — can be managed using conventional techniques like excavation and removal. However, for large sites, this approach is often neither convenient nor cost-effective,” Al-Lami said. “Companies should consider alternative, environmentally friendly methods, such as revegetation.”
Al-Lami conducted long-term greenhouse experiments and recently transitioned to field testing on Doe Run’s Sweetwater mine site in Reynolds County. There, test plots are being used to evaluate native plant revegetation strategies that incorporate both chemical and biological treatments to support native plant growth and stimulate long-term ecological recovery, said Al-Lami.
“Last fall, we conducted our most recent vegetation survey. We’re specifically looking for indicators like native plant coverage, diversity and species richness — the types of native plants we aim to establish,” Al-Lami said. “The results so far have been promising.”
This story was originally published by Missouri Business Alert, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
