Pentagon backs Supra Technology to recover high-purity Scandium in U.S.

Supra Elemental Recovery, an Austin-based firm, has received the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contract to improve scandium extraction from industrial byproducts. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is backing the new technology to strengthen domestic supplies of the critical mineral. According to Supra’s announcement, the Defense Logistics Agency awarded the critical minerals technology startup a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to evaluate the feasibility of applying its separation platform to scandium-bearing feedstocks and assess its potential for future scalability. “The U.S. has scandium resources onshore,” said Katie Durham, co-founder and CEO of Supra, in the company’s release. She further stated that their technology can recover scandium at high purity and at scale to meet domestic demand. The contract is significant due to the continued reliance of the United States on foreign scandium sources, a vulnerability the Pentagon is now working to address. Scandium’s role in aerospace and advanced technology Rare earth separation involves converting mixed material into individual oxides used across advanced manufacturing and other strategic industries. They are essential to electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, semiconductors, and military systems. But building a reliable supply chain still remains a challenge for the United States. Scandium, a rare-earth element, is used in lightweight aluminum-scandium alloys, including in aerospace components, and in solid oxide fuel cells. Unlike minerals produced primarily from dedicated mines, scandium is often recovered alongside other materials, such as titanium, zirconium, cobalt, nickel, and aluminum, according to Metal Tech News. Its proprietary platform uses advanced chemical separation technology to recover targeted elements from industrial feedstocks selectively. Supra said peer-reviewed research has validated its underlying separation technology, which can apply to different minerals and feedstocks. The company says it is developing technology for low-cost, high-purity critical mineral production at mining and industrial sites. U.S. projects target domestic scandium supplies The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)-backed research will evaluate separation and processing technologies that could contribute to a more diverse domestic supply chain. But Supra’s work joins several projects pursuing scandium production and processing in North America, including USA Rare Earth and Texas Mineral Resources’ Round Top project in Texas and NioCorp Developments in Nebraska. Rio Tinto in Canada extracts high-purity scandium oxide from titanium dioxide waste streams produced from its Lac Tio mine operations in Quebec. Similarly, Supra is pursuing recovery from existing industrial materials rather than relying solely on new primary scandium mining, as per Metal Tech News. Supra further said that its platform can be adapted across different minerals and material sources. The Phase I contract will determine the feasibility of Supra’s approach with regard to the project. The company will now evaluate its separation platform against relevant scandium-bearing feedstocks, with the initial research focused on determining whether the technology can support high-purity scandium recovery at larger scales. The Austin-based company recovers and refines critical minerals at mining and industrial sites and is also a member of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium. Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Originally from LA, Maria Mocerino has been published in Business Insider, The Irish Examiner, The Rogue Mag, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, and now Interesting Engineering.