The Black Cauldron Project is the Authority's covert program to genetically engineer "super-soldiers" from human subjects in RAGE. Elizabeth Cadence and Antonin Kvasir were forced to work on this project for the Authority in the graphic novel After the Impact, and this is also the experiment that led to the death of James Casey, the once second in command of the Authority. The mutants infesting the Dead City are believed to result from an intermediary step in the Authority's ultimate super-soldier design. Though officially canceled following the disaster at the Dead City research facility on March 31, 2095, rumors persist of the project's continued existence.
The project itself continues with a few bands of enforcers staying in the research building, guarding and studying the data. Nicholas Raine must infiltrate this building, take the research data, and return it to Captain John Marshall in the quest "Lost Research Data". The Resistance later discovers that the Authority had managed to control mutants and even give them the ability to wield a weapon.
In RAGE 2, it is confirmed that the project continued because Authority Mutants will appear.