The competition was launched to discover new digital solutions for the metals and mining industries and promised to identify the solution that would best deliver rapid benefits, including full payback, within 12 months.
Glencore will find out this month whether it will be able to build an electronics recycling facility in the UK, which could be operational within 18 months.
The pledge to block the royalty proposal in committee and the full Senate is the latest example of Manchin's newfound role as a legislative powerbroker in the evenly divided chamber.
