NORMAN, OKLA. – The University of Oklahoma, partnering with the state of Oklahoma and academic and industry partners, has received funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation to build the nation’s first integrated platform for recovering critical minerals from existing oil and gas wells. Funded by a three-year, $6M award from the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships directorate, the project, called Shale 2.0, targets the critical minerals that are of particular importance to American independence and competitiveness in semiconductors, AI, advanced manufacturing, energy and defense.
America’s shale formations are believed to hold significant concentrations of nickel, titanium, manganese, vanadium and rare earth elements. However, because drilling new domestic mines is slow and often cost-prohibitive, the U.S. currently imports most of these critical minerals. This collaborative project will explore how to extract these valuable elements from existing oil and gas wells without drilling new wells or mining rock at the surface.
“This is a public-private partnership by design,” said OU Vice President for Research and Partnerships and principal investigator Matt Hulver. “With this initial investment of $6 million from the National Science Foundation and dollar-for-dollar matching funds from university, state and industry partners, we can give the nation its first integrated capabilities to produce critical minerals and materials from the sites already in existence.”
The project brings together private and public investment to test this novel idea, including Oklahoma Secretary of Energy and Environment Jeff Starling, and Nick Archer, Oklahoma State Representative, House District 55, as well as Mewbourne Oil Company, Continental Resources, Smoketree Resources and the Hamm Institute for American Energy, among others.
The team will engineer reactive fluids that simultaneously extract several minerals from existing wells and separate them at the surface using flexible, modular technologies. If successful, the researchers believe this platform could help secure mineral supplies, reduce environmental disturbance and strengthen economic opportunities in Oklahoma and across other domestic energy-producing regions. Because these minerals are co-produced with oil and gas during extraction, this platform could strengthen existing operations rather than compete with them.
Oklahoma researchers have spent decades building a detailed scientific picture of the Anadarko Basin, one of the richest and most heavily drilled oil and gas regions in the country. They have also developed relationships with industry partners who can help provide the mature wells needed for this project. By leveraging this extensive infrastructure, decades of geological data and the university’s established research on secure and resilient energy, this project could discover new methods for critical element extraction, avoiding the $50-70 million cost of drilling new wells.
“The Shale Revolution 1.0 transformed America’s energy landscape by unlocking vast domestic oil and natural gas resources,” said Son Dang , assistant professor of petroleum and geological engineering in the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy and co-investigator for the project. “Now, Shale Revolution 2.0 has the potential to reshape the domestic and global critical-mineral supply chain by unlocking critical elements trapped within those shale formations. Achieving this vision will require strategic investment in subsurface science and engineering to map the extent of resources, control fluid–rock–mineral interactions, optimize transport and extraction, and maximize the recovery of both remaining hydrocarbons and critical materials from the subsurface.”
By the end of this three-year project, OU is expected to produce a validated technology platform, predictive models for injection and recovery, a commercialization roadmap and a workforce development plan that includes Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma’s CareerTech system, community colleges and industry partners.
About the project
The project, “Shale 2.0: A National Technology Platform for In Situ Recovery of Critical Minerals from Domestic Shale Reservoirs,” is funded by a $6 million continuing grant by the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Technology and Innovation Partnerships (TIP), Division of Innovation and Technology Ecosystems, Award no. 2634532 . Co-principal investigators include Reza Foudazi , Ph.D., Lloyd G and Joyce Austin Presidential Professor, and Ahmad Al-Douri , Ph.D., assistant professor in the Gallogly College of Engineering, as well as Hector Lamadrid , Ph.D., assistant professor in the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, with support from the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis. The project began on Oct. 1, 2026, and is expected to conclude on Sept. 30, 2029.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and healthcare needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu .