Rebuilding American infrastructure for a cleaner, more secure future

ROC Minerals is a forward-thinking development partnership working to rebuild American critical mineral infrastructure.

Driving Demand for Domestic Critical Minerals

The clean energy transition and US national security requirements are driving demand for domestically produced critical minerals to historic levels.

Decades of Import Dependence Erode Infrastructure

With the steady shift towards importation of US raw materials and products over the past 50 years, our country no longer possesses the infrastructure required to meet the special needs of critical minerals.

Rebuilding Critical Mineral Infrastructure

ROC Minerals is helping to rebuild that infrastructure. From logistics and warehousing to processing and refining, we provide the picks and shovels to the clean energy transition.

Increasing Demand for
Critical Minerals

The demand for critical minerals is surging due to their essential role in advancing technology, renewable energy, and national security. These minerals are integral and vital to a wide range of modern applications like semiconductors, advanced computing systems, solar panels, battery storage systems, aerospace applications, and US defense systems, including radar, drones, and advanced weaponry.

By 2030, overall global demand for critical minerals is expected to more than double with certain minerals expected to see over 9 times increase in demand.

Critical Mineral Supply at Risk

Today, virtually all mineral demand in the US is met by imports from other countries. The current geopolitical climate has created a strategic imperative to reverse that trend and secure a stable domestic supply of critical minerals to avoid growing supply disruptions. As a result, development of new sources of primary and recycled minerals is underway, and will require extensive specialized infrastructure to reach the market

Finding Value in
Yesterday’s Waste

ROC Minerals specializes in the re-mining and recycling of industrial mineral wastes. Potential opportunities include a wide array of legacy wastes, including mine wastes, mill tailings, industrial by-products, and untold additional volumes from manufacturing slag, coal ash, and urban waste streams. These secondary sources represent many billions of tons of waste with recoverable amounts of rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, aluminum and other critical and strategic industrial minerals.

Our research suggests that waste-to-value strategies will play a pivotal role in stabilizing critical mineral supply, lowering the environmental footprint of extraction, and revitalizing overlooked communities with innovation and infrastructure investment.

ROC Pathways:
A Proprietary AI Platform

ROC Minerals is currently developing a patented AI platform designed to identify and optimize waste-to-market opportunities. We call it ROC Pathways.
ROC Pathways will combine both publicly available and proprietary data sets and information to help:
    1: Develop new legacy waste streams for recycling,
    2: Identify new market opportunities for accessible wastes, and
    3: Commercialize an array of new conversion technologies to extract value from legacy wastes.
ROC Pathways will be available to the market in late 2024.

Our Team

Ellis Sullivan

Ellis Sullivan is an industry leader and seasoned entrepreneur with a robust background in mineral processing, refining, and sustainable supply chain solutions for the climate economy. Previously, Ellis served as CEO and President of one of North America’s largest suppliers of processed brown fused alumina and calcined bauxite. There, he managed sizable annual revenues, optimized operational frameworks, and expanded market capitalization through strategic product development. Ellis currently serves on the advisory board of ElementUSA, focused on recycling industrial wastes into valuable products. He has also advised companies like Graphcoa (Graphite) and Limetec (Dolomite, Limestone, Calcium carbonate). Ellis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Kentucky and has been an active member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and the International Order of Saint Hubertus (IOSH).

Rick Tallman

Rick Tallman is a veteran entrepreneur, investment manager and founder of TallmanPacific, a critical minerals strategic advisory. In 2007, he founded Renova Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm that brought new industrial technologies to full commercialization by investing in, developing, managing, and selling over $1B of sustainable infrastructure. Throughout his career, Rick has developed heavy industrial infrastructure in a variety of industries, including water treatment, power, energy, mining and mine reclamation. Rick served as a Company Commander in the US Army during the Persian Gulf War, and frequently writes and lectures on subjects of entrepreneurship and the energy transition. He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Geologic and Hydrologic Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, where he serves on the Board of Governors and as a Senior Advisor to the Payne Institiute for Public Policy.

John Rice

John Rice has over a 20 year track record in the renewables and environmental industries, with a focus on green infrastructure financing and development. Prior to his involvement with ROC Minerals, John was a Principal at Renova Capital, developing heavy infrastructure assets across a variety of sectors including biomass-to-power, geothermal, solar, energy storage, biofuels, and waste-to-energy. John holds a joint B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, an MBA and MS in Sustainable Systems from the University of Michigan.