Contract will bolster Supra’s recovery of rare earth element from North American industrial byproducts

Supra Elemental Recovery, Inc. (“Supra”), a critical minerals technology startup, today announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) had awarded the company a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to advance recovery of scandium. Under this Phase I SBIR effort, Supra will evaluate the feasibility of applying its separation platform to relevant feedstocks in support of potential future scalability.

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Supra’s proprietary cartridge designed to recover high-purity scandium. Photo credit: Genesis Cosme, The University of Texas at Austin.

Scandium is a key mineral utilized in advanced aerospace, energy, and commercial technologies, and developing domestic processing capabilities strengthens national supply chain resilience. The research effort aims to evaluate novel separation and processing technologies to support domestic supply chain diversity.

“The U.S. has scandium resources onshore,” said Katie Durham, Co-Founder and CEO of Supra. “Our technology is built to recover this scandium at high purity and at scale to meet domestic demand. We’re grateful for DLA’s support.”

Supra's proprietary platform utilizes advanced chemical separation technology to selectively recover target elements from industrial feedstocks. The underlying technology has been validated in peer-reviewed research and is tunable across other minerals and feedstocks. Supra is supported by private-sector industry partners and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Supra Elemental Recovery

Supra Elemental Recovery, Inc. is building the technology layer for low-cost, high-purity critical mineral production. Spun out of the University of Texas at Austin, Supra recovers and refines critical minerals using peer-reviewed separation technologies at mining and industrial sites. Supra is a member of the Defense Industrial Base Consortium, and headquartered in Austin, Texas. Learn more at www.getsupra.com

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“The U.S. has scandium resources onshore,” said Katie Durham, Co-Founder and CEO of Supra. “Our technology is built to recover this scandium at high purity and at scale to meet domestic demand. We’re grateful for DLA’s support.”