Energy explores new way to harvest precious metals to help U.S. reserves

A clever idea to use magnetic nanoparticles to capture valuable materials from brine. Sounds arcane, but it’s blossomed into new projects that could help make the U.S. a producer, and not just a consumer, of critical minerals used in electronics and energy production. One planned pilot project, funded co-funded with industry by the Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy is in the works at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. For more, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke with lab fellow Pete McGrail.