Department of Defense Awards $26.4 Million for Low Cost Domestic Production of High Purity Niobium for Defense Applications

The Department of Defense announced today a $26.4 million award via the Defense Production Act Investments (DPAI) program to Global Advanced Metals USA, Inc. (GAM) to enable the domestic production of high-purity niobium oxide at GAM's Boyertown, Pennsylvania facilities.

In performing this work, GAM leverages more than seventy years of expertise in ore extraction processes and will utilize this funding to integrate new workflows into its existing production facilities in Pennsylvania. This new domestic supply will further secure the nation's supply chain for materials critical to the Department and reduce dependency on foreign sources.

"This award will substantially reduce supply chain risk in our defense and commercial aerospace industries," said Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy (ASD(IBP)). "The United States can no longer afford to be entirely reliant on overseas sources for the high-purity niobium required for specialty steels and alloys used in a plethora of defense platforms such as jet and rocket engines." This effort supports the National Defense Industrial Strategy's priority to increase supply chain resilience by expanding support for domestic production.

This is the latest of 55 awards totaling $555 million issued by the DPAI program since the beginning of fiscal year 2024. DPAI is overseen by the ASD(IBP)'s Manufacturing Capability Expansion and Investment Prioritization (MCEIP) program.

For more information on MCEIP, please visit: https://www.businessdefense.gov/ibr/mceip/index.html

About the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy (OASD(IBP))

The OASD(IBP) works with domestic and international partners to forge and sustain a robust, secure, and resilient industrial base enabling the warfighter, now and in the future. OASD(IBP) released the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) in January, and recently published the NDIS Interim Implementation Report. The NDIS and Interim Implementation Report can be accessed at https://www.businessdefense.gov/NDIS.html.