Department of Commerce Awards CHIPS Incentives to a Subsidiary of Korea Zinc (Crucible Metals) to Support a State-of-the-Art Smelter and Critical Minerals Processing Facility in the United States

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Program awarded $210 million in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to a subsidiary of Korea Zinc — Crucible Metals, LLC — to support an advanced smelter and critical minerals processing facility in Tennessee with an expected $6.6 billion of capital expenditures. The state-of-the-art smelter and critical minerals processing facility will produce 13 critical and strategic minerals that are vital to semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, aerospace & defense, automotives, and industrials.

This CHIPS incentive will support equipment utilized for the domestic production of the following critical and strategic minerals: gallium, bismuth, germanium, indium, antimony, tellurium, cadmium, palladium, copper, silver, gold, zinc, and lead as well as sulfuric acid and semiconductor-grade sulfuric acid. The facility will produce 540,000 tons per year of these minerals that are essential to strategic U.S. industries.

Korea Zinc is a global leader in mineral production and operates the world’s largest non-ferrous smelter in Onsan, Korea. The Onsan facility produces over one million tons of minerals per year and is the largest single-site producer in the world of zinc, lead, silver, and indium. The planned U.S. facility in Clarksville, Tennessee will be an advanced replica of the Onsan facility and is expected to be operational by 2029. Additionally, Korea Zinc has agreed to give the United States Government and U.S. customers priority access to its Korean production of 10 critical and strategic minerals starting in 2026.

“These minerals and chemicals are essential components of the semiconductor supply chain, particularly for the manufacturing of silicon and compound semiconductor devices. This $6.6 billion domestic project, along with the United States’ expanded access to the Korea Zinc Onsan minerals production, will help alleviate potential chokepoints for U.S. companies,” said the Director of the CHIPS Program, Bill Frauenhofer.

The project requires a total financing and investment of approximately $7.4 billion, including working capital and financing costs. In addition to the CHIPS Program incentive, the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital also announced conditional loans to support the project.

“Accelerating Korea Zinc’s critical minerals production in the United States is vital to our country’s national and economic security and a win for the U.S. economy,” said the Executive Director of the U.S. Investment Accelerator, Michael Grimes. “This reshoring of critical minerals production is another pillar of this Administration’s commitment to semiconductor manufacturing in the United States and accelerating the build-out of our most strategic industries.”