A Sharon, Pennsylvania company that pulls rare earth elements out of coal ash has struck a deal to be acquired, backed by $53 million in federal awards and a demonstration plant already under construction in Alabama. Special Project Delivery, Inc. announced it entered into a definitive Business Combination Agreement with Winner Water Services Inc. dated September 30, 2026, setting the stage for the Pennsylvania firm to become part of a larger push to build domestic supply chains for critical minerals.
A Revenue-Generating Rare Earth Player From Sharon
According to financialcontent.com, Winner is described as a revenue-generating U.S. rare earth company that recovers rare earth elements, scandium and alumina from coal ash impoundments. Those impoundments represent a domestic stockpile that has already been mined, offering a potential shortcut around the need for new mining operations. The company and its research partners have received funding from the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense through six consecutive awards totaling $53 million, the outlet reports.
Winner was formed in 2013 as a joint venture with a leading national research institute, according to stocktitan.net. The company has maintained a pilot plant in Sharon while it works on a larger demonstration facility elsewhere, the site notes. As reported by Voice of Alexandria, in August 2026 Winner broke ground on a rare earth extraction demonstration plant at the National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Alabama.
Part of a Bigger National Security Platform
The acquisition ties into a larger combination already in motion. SPD announced a separate agreement with Mobix Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: MOBX) on August 13, 2026, to combine the two companies as part of Mobix Labs' National Security Matters initiative, per the same financialcontent.com account. Winner will join that National Security Matters platform once the deal with SPD closes. SPD describes itself as a strategic infrastructure platform building U.S. supply chains for rare earth elements, critical minerals, water and energy, the outlet notes.
The Winner transaction is expected to close in connection with SPD's combination with Mobix Labs, but it remains subject to required approvals and other customary conditions, the report states. No purchase price or other financial terms of the Winner deal were disclosed in the companies' statements.
Alabama Utility Already Working With Winner
Winner's reach already extends into Alabama ahead of the acquisition news. Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power is partnering with the Pennsylvania firm on a testing facility to extract rare earth elements and critical minerals from coal ash, according to al.com. The state has an estimated 117 million tons of coal ash stored in ponds at nine sites, the outlet reports, underscoring the scale of material that could potentially be processed.
The interest in coal ash as a rare earth source isn't limited to Alabama. A 2024 University of Texas study estimated that accessible U.S. coal ash nationwide contains 11 million tons of rare earth elements worth up to $8.4 billion, al.com reports. The federal government has been funding research into accessing those elements domestically, including from coal ash, as the country looks to lessen its dependency on foreign supply for materials the Department of Energy has designated critical minerals.
The Technology Behind the Extraction
Winner's own materials describe a Liquid-to-Liquid Extraction process developed and demonstrated by the company for separating and refining rare earth elements pulled from coal ash, according to winnerwaterservices.com. The company says building a pilot plant was part of that research and development effort. Broader federal research has explored similar territory: the Department of Energy has examined recovering rare earth elements from coal and coal byproduct streams such as fly ash, coal refuse and aqueous effluents, though that account carries lower confidence in the available record.
Neither SPD nor Winner has disclosed a definitive closing date for the acquisition, and it isn't yet confirmed whether the transaction has cleared stockholder, Nasdaq or other required regulatory approvals. Mobix Labs may file proxy-related documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission as the broader combination moves forward, and investors have been urged to read those materials once they become available.
