The Environmental Monitoring and Technology Remediation Assessment Initiative (EMRTAI) is an EPA-funded initiative focused on driving technological innovation in characterizing and recovering critical minerals in waste materials at Superfund legacy hard rock mine and mineral processing sites.

Technology assessments, in coordination with technology vendors and developers, will be conducted using waste materials from legacy mine sites to 1) advance promising technologies to higher technology readiness levels (TRLs) and 2) demonstrate performance capabilities of advanced technologies under field conditions to progress towards commercialization.

Assessment approaches are designed to provide stakeholders across the mining and remediation industries with objective, high quality performance data to support technology selection decisions for the treatment and beneficial reuse of mining waste. Integral to this effort is assessing the types and capabilities of technologies and methodologies to characterize critical minerals in diverse media, including mining influenced water and solid mine waste.

The EMRTAI recognizes that communities where these technology assessments will take place have previously experienced impacts from the mining industry. The Initiative intends to be transparent in communications regarding the assessments and work with communities to foster dialogue about the beneficial reuse of waste materials.