CS-RFI-METAL – Sources Sought – Request for Information Rare Earth Element Metallization Project

Description and Purpose:

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment (OUSD A&S) Innovation Capability & Modernization (ICAM) Office is seeking information in the form of Statements of Capabilities (SOC) from interested parties in support of the REE Metallization Project objectives and requirements described below. This Request for Information (RFI) is being used to identify potential sources and gather market research for ICAM to make decisions regarding the Rare Earth Element (REE) Metallization Project. ICAM will use the results of this RFI to determine current capabilities in REE Metallization and potentially refine requirements and develop preliminary project cost estimates.

Period of Performance (PoP): The PoP is anticipated to be the fourth quarter (Q4) of Government Fiscal Year (GFY) 2024 through Q4 GFY 2031.

Background:  

United States Code Title 10 §4872. Acquisition of sensitive materials from non-allied foreign nations: prohibition states that “… the Secretary of Defense may not— (1) procure any covered material melted or produced in any covered nation, or any end item that contains a covered material manufactured in any covered nation…” this prohibition is set to take effect in 2027. This applies to rare earth metals (REMs) used in magnets and other components critical to defense applications—the National Technical Industrial Base (NTIB) does not currently have the capacity to produce REMs in commercial quantities sufficient to meet even the DoDs demand, let alone that of the critical commercial base—nearly all REMs pass through the industrial purview of covered nations.   Executive Order (E.O.) 14017 “Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains” directed the Secretary of Defense to lead a whole-of-government study to identify risks and make recommendations that are necessary to ensure a healthy manufacturing and defense industrial base (DIB). Critical materials, especially rare earths, and components reliant upon rare earths within their manufacturing value chain, were identified within the E.O. 14017 report as a significant risk across numerous Department of Defense (DoD) systems as well as the US commercial industrial base.

Additionally, the resulting action plan “Securing Defense-Critical Supply Chains”, outlined a strategy to reduce the US dependency on foreign sources of minerals and materials as it is “a strategic vulnerability for the security and prosperity of the US.” The report also states, “Strategic and critical materials are foundational for value-added manufacturing and the delivery of essential services throughout the global economy. In addition, strategic and critical minerals are critical to the global clean energy transition, with application in areas as diverse as high efficiency magnets for offshore wind, stationary and electric vehicle batteries, and coatings and alloys.”

The near peer nations of China and Russia wage incipient and constant economic tradecraft against the US industrial base with the intent of weakening its reliability and responsiveness, compromising the US ability to innovate, modernize and sustain key defense capabilities. Most notably, China has significant market power for rare earth elements (REE) including approximately 80% market share for rare earth mining, separation, metal making and magnet making. The Chinese Government is significantly involved in the market, including the issuing of resource quotas and the forced consolidation of industry into six consortiums or groupings. This significant market power, coupled with Chinese Government-directed organization and strategy, poses a direct and severe threat to the National Security Innovation Base.

REEs are mined in the US and allied nations but shipped overseas for separation, processing, and conversion into metals and alloys. Manufacturers supporting both critical commercial industries and DoD supply chains must purchase these rare earth metals and compounds from foreign sources (i.e., China, Estonia, Japan, and Malaysia). Rare earth metals and alloys are essential to the production of industrial permanent magnets, including neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) and samarium cobalt (SmCo) magnets. As the DoD and domestic commercial demand for these magnets increases, the need to secure the supply of rare earth metals and alloys within the US and reduce the US dependence on non-allied sources is a matter of national security.

The intent of this REE Metallization Project is to expand the domestic capability for converting heavy and light REE oxides or chemicals to metals, converting those metals to alloys, and/or directly converting heavy and light rare earth oxides, compounds, and other rare earth feedstock to alloys. The overall objective is to create a domestic source capable of producing sufficient capacity that supports the NdFeB & SmCo permanent magnet supply chain and have the capability to become a merchant supplier of metals and alloys for NdFeB & SmCo magnet manufacturers serving both the commercial and DoD industrial base. 

Overall Technical Objectives:

1. Create/modify a facility capable of converting REE compounds into individually separated, high purity (ISHP) saleable metal products for use in intermediate and/or end product defense and/or commercial equipment through development of advanced metallization processing concepts.
2. Enable a plant to produce TBD MT of ISHP saleable metal per year.
3. Complete qualification into DIB and essential civilian supply chains.

Threshold capabilities below equate to Tier 1 requirements. Preferred (Tiers 2-4) capabilities are optional capabilities desired by the DoD but are not required. Preferred capabilities are listed in the order of most (Tier 2) to least (Tier 4) preferred.

Tier 1: Threshold Requirements

1. Tier 1: Modify, expand, or equip a commercially sustainable domestic capability for processing REE oxides or other sources of rare earths into metals and converting said metals to alloys used to include manufacturing permanent magnets (e.g., sintered samarium cobalt (SmCo), NdFeB magnets, etc.)

• The minimum commercial capacity sought is TBD (e.g, 50-10,000 metric tons (MT)) per year of total, combined installed capacity for rare earth metal alloys used in NdFeB and SmCo magnet manufacturing.
• This required capability must include an installed capacity able to produce neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy), samarium (Sm), and terbium (Tb) alloys used for permanent, sintered SmCo or NdFeB magnet manufacturing.
• Alloys produced by this capability must be able to meet magnetic coercivity specifications required for the manufacture of NdFeB magnets of grade M, H, SH, and UH, or comparable commercial grades of SmCo magnets.

Preferred Capabilities (in order of most (Tier 2) to least (Tier 4) preferred):

1. Tier 2:  Modify, expand, or equip up to an additional TBD of domestic capability for the Threshold Capability specified in Tier 1.
2. Tier 3: Modify, expand, or equip domestic capability to produce rare earth containing alloys other than those required for NdFeB or SmCo magnets, such as magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), or Copper (Cu) metal alloys. Target capability sought is TBD.

Award Consideration: 

The Government may issue a solicitation that could result in one or more awards.

Response Content:

Interested vendors must submit a SOC in a narrative report that includes both the company/corporate information and responses to the questions below. All SOCs are to be submitted in accordance with the administrative requirements identified herein.

SOC Administrative Requirements:

The Government requests a maximum 10 page, 12-point font response with a 3-page limit for Company Information and Corporate Capabilities & Experience. 

Please submit via email to all the following points of contact with “[ICAM REE Metallization Project RFI Response]” in the subject line:

1. [email protected] 
2. Kelli Senger, Agreements Specialist, [email protected]

Submitted SOCs must include all of the following information:

1. Company Information
2. Corporate Capabilities & Experience
3. Answers to Technical Questions
4. Answers to Contractual/Business Questions

Company Information:

1. Company name
2. Company’s ownership and other relevant information
3. Personnel/Business size classification (Small/Large Business, HUB, veteran, etc.)
4. CAGE Code
5. Mailing address
6. Point of Contact including e-mail and telephone numbers

Corporate Capabilities & Experience:

1. Describe work your company has performed and company expertise which is relevant to the role of a Prime Contractor. Also provide information related to:

1. History with providing metallization, to include electrolysis, alloying, mineral processing, strip casting, and/or any part of the REE mine-to-magnet value chain capabilities.

If your company has no relevant experience in the item(s) listed above, please provide a negative response.

1. Relevant REE capabilities
2. Subcontractor’s capabilities, products, and services
3. Corporate and teaming experience to perform metallization capabilities at this magnitude.           

Please answer as many of the following questions in the SOCs:

Technical Questions:

1. Do you have an existing facility that you would be able to modify for the REE Metallization Project? If yes, where is it located? If you don’t have an existing facility and need to build a new facility, do you have a location in mind?
2. What Tier of requirements /capabilities do you think you could achieve in the time period provided?
3. What types and purities of metals/alloys would be expected from the proposed facility?
4. By what method would the proposed metal products be produced (E.g. molten salt electrolysis)?
5. Does your company have insight regarding what magnet grade strength and coercivity of NdFeB or SmCo magnets could be expected to be produced from the output metals? (E.g. N48M, where 48 represents the max energy product in MGOe and M represents coercivity and max operating temperature of 100ºC)
6. What’s your company’s current manufacturing readiness level (MRL) for metallization?
7. What’s your company’s experience with qualification activities? Does your company have experience with industrial qualification of alloys? Magnets?
8. To what extent does your existing workforce demonstrate the expertise or capability of fulfilling these requirements?
9. What are your major risks?  

Contractual / Business Questions: 

1. Does your company have any concerns regarding the timeline or PoP?
2. Does your company plan to partner with other contractors?
3. Discuss risk and willingness to cost share under a Fixed Price prototype agreement.
4. Provide an estimated summary of the total project costs. Discuss any key cost and schedule drivers, cost tradeoffs, schedule considerations, and assumptions.
5. Does your company anticipate using any proprietary technology or information as part of the proposed solution? Do you anticipate any challenges in acquiring proprietary or specialized technology as part of this proposed solution?
6. Does your company currently have any open US or Allied Government REE or critical mineral projects? List project name, organization, and POP.
7. Does your company have any contracts in place with OSD/ICAM or other government organizations? List project name, government organization, contract strategy (e.g., Other Transaction Agreement (OTA), Technology Investment Agreement (TIA), Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), etc.), contract type, value, and PoP.
8. Does your company have any existing commercial or business agreements that would impact supply availability?
9. Does your company have additional market or technological expertise (or services) you are able to provide in support of this effort? 

Responding to this RFI:

To the maximum extent possible, please submit non-proprietary information. If proprietary information is submitted, it must be appropriately and specifically marked. It is the submitter’s responsibility to clearly define to the Government what is considered proprietary data. Any proprietary information should be clearly labeled as “Proprietary.”

Response Submission Deadline:  

Responses to this RFI must be submitted no later than 4:00pm Central Time on 25 April 2024.  RFI submissions will be accepted as email attachments only. 

Disclaimers and Notes – THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a solicitation (Request for Solution or Request for Quotations) or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This notice does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Furthermore, ICAM is not, at this time, seeking proposals. Responders are advised that neither ICAM nor the Government is responsible for any cost incurred to furnish information in response to this notice. The Government will not assume liability for costs incurred by any attendee for travel expenses or marketing efforts. All costs associated with responding to this notice will be solely at the responding party’s expense. Submission of a response is strictly voluntary.