BATTLE CREEK, Mich. –
Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services Director Mike Cannon attended the Defense Industrial Base Accelerator 2026 conference in Philadelphia Aug. 26 to discuss the agency’s burgeoning interest in converting excess property scrap into manufacturing stock feed.
During a roundtable discussion titled “The Above Ground Mine: Recycling and Recovering Critical Materials,” Cannon highlighted some of DLA’s recent cross-agency forays into critical materials recovery, including the harvesting of germanium from night vision optics turn-ins, the production of high-grade titanium powder from aircraft components, and the recovery of boron carbide from unusable body armor. He estimated that nearly 30 companies were represented in the discussion and he shared his thoughts on DLA’s critical materials recovery potential.
“What capability currently exists in industry that we can leverage to reclaim critical materials?” Cannon asked.
Among the near-term materials recovery possibilities on the table: harvesting niobium from the magnets found within the countless computer hard drives DLA currently destroys on the military’s behalf.
“I think that could be an easy button for us,” Cannon said, noting that the industrial capability for extraction and feedstock creation already exist. “Then we just start shipping boxes of hard drives to this [contract] company so we can get it back into the hands of people making stuff.”
The roundtable session included discussions on supply chain mapping, current federal policy, and commercial incentives. The forum prompted dialogue between DoW and private industry on how to reclaim value from excess scrap, batteries, and electronic waste while bridging the gap between both commercial and military end-of-life property streams and national security supply chain needs.
Cannon said some of the discussion included exploring the potential of profit sharing – allowing private industry to keep or sell some of what it extracts under recycling contracts. Other ideas included evaluating more multi-firm contracts where one company extracts material and sends it to another contract holder for processing into usable feedstock.
“Something we have been talking about for three or four years has finally gotten some attention,” Cannon said. “… It was a very productive conference, and we – this organization – have a good reputation, both within industry and within the department. I had lines of people coming to talk with me.”
For the past several years, DLA Disposition Services, the agency’s research and development team, DLA Strategic Materials, and headquarters operations and policy personnel have worked together to test the feasibility of extracting critical minerals and chemicals from scrap and excess items turned in by military units to the agency’s reverse logistics field locations across the globe. Additional elements under various stages of consideration for potential future recovery from excess equipment turn ins include beryllium, tungsten, nickel, aluminum, and certain plastics and polymers.
Among the DLA contingent was Courtney Carroll, a process integrator focused on critical materials recovery efforts across the entire agency. Carroll said the conference had an outsized focus on critical materials and their importance to the War Department, with multiple speakers emphasizing the growing need for defense leaders to maintain a clear picture of their supply chains and identify what source materials critically affect them.
“The DIBX allowed me to see the dedication that government and industry have with strategic/critical materials,” Carroll said. “It helped me learn that capabilities exist, we just have to find the right areas that DLA fits into and leverage existing programs and industry to be successful.”