American Resources Corporation, a leader in the critical mineral supply chain, announced that the Company has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) for award negotiations under the Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion – Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities funding opportunity.

American Resources is one of five organizations selected under Topic Area 1: Mines & Metals Pilots – Coal-Based Industry. The program is intended to support pilot-scale facilities capable of recovering rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal and coal-based feedstocks at domestic industrial sites.

American Resources will lead a consortium-based project focused on advancing an integrated processing approach for the recovery and production of rare earth elements and other critical materials from unconventional domestic feedstocks, including coal-based byproducts. ReElement Technologies Corporation (“ReElement”), in which American Resources maintains a minority ownership interest, is a member of the consortium team and is expected to contribute its advanced refining and separation capabilities to the project.

The consortium’s approach is designed to evaluate and sequence existing, high-technology-readiness-level unit operations that can efficiently concentrate, condition and prepare complex coal-based feedstocks for downstream separation and purification. The project is expected to focus on establishing the most effective front-end processing pathway to produce feedstock streams suitable for advanced refining technologies, including ReElement’s chromatographic separation platform.

“American Resources has spent years developing a practical understanding of the opportunity within coal-based byproducts and other unconventional domestic feedstocks,” stated Mark C. Jensen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Resources Corporation. “The challenge is not simply identifying where critical minerals occur. The challenge is establishing an economically viable process flow that can efficiently recover, concentrate, separate and refine those elements into marketable products.”

“This project is designed around that commercial reality,” continued Jensen. “By sequencing proven unit operations into high-TRL technologies and connecting those operations to ReElement’s advanced chromatography platform for final-stage separation and purification, we believe there is a meaningful opportunity to unlock value from feedstocks that have historically been overlooked or considered too complex to process economically.”

The project will evaluate how established process technologies can be integrated to recover and upgrade rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal-based sources before directing qualified material streams into advanced refining operations. ReElement’s multi-element, multi-feedstock platform is designed to separate and purify complex material streams into the specific high-purity products required by commercial customers across defense, energy, advanced manufacturing, technology and other strategic sectors.

“ReElement’s refining-first model was developed to address one of the most important bottlenecks in the critical mineral supply chain: the ability to efficiently separate and purify complex inputs into qualified, high-value products,” said Jensen. “This DOE-supported initiative provides an opportunity to demonstrate how that capability can be integrated with practical front-end unit operations to create a more complete and economically viable domestic supply-chain solution.”

American Resources’ role in the consortium builds upon the Company’s strategic focus on critical mineral feedstock sourcing, resource development, preprocessing, trading and selective investment across the value chain. The Company is positioned to help identify and develop unconventional feedstock opportunities while serving as a strategic gateway to ReElement’s advanced refining capabilities.

The Company expects the project to support the broader development of domestic supply chains for rare earth elements and other critical materials by advancing technologies capable of converting coal-based byproducts and related materials into commercially viable feedstocks for downstream refining.

The DOE selection is subject to a negotiation process. Selection for award negotiations does not constitute a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding, and any award amount remains subject to final negotiations and DOE approval.