US Reinvents Rare Earth Refining As China Guards Know-How
A senior US official told Asia Times that American refiners would rely on their own innovation to make the country self-sufficient in critical minerals, and that she was confident they would succeed.
Industry experts, however, said some US projects would still have to pay high costs to learn China's traditional extraction method, which Chinese firms have spent more than two decades perfecting.
“Over the last 20 years, we've developed a lot of innovation, but we didn't develop the manufacturing know-how,” Audrey Robertson, assistant secretary of energy at the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation of the US Department of Energy (DOE), told Asia Times at the Financial Times Metals & Mining Summit in London on October 15.
“We might develop the intellectual property, but we don't execute on building the big factory. There's definitely going to be an increased focus on getting innovation that starts and stays in the United States, and the ability to build out the critical mineral processing with new and innovative methods,” she said.
She said the US would not close the supply chain gap by doing what it had been doing for the past 20 years, but by finding new solutions and new ways of doing things.
Washington's push comes as Beijing has steadily tightened its grip on rare earths, restricting exports of the metals as well as the technology and people needed to refine them.
In December 2023, Beijing banned exports of rare earth processing and magnet-making technologies. In June, it cut off supplies of China-origin dual-use items to US producers MP Materials and USA Rare Earth. Last month, it tightened exit rules to stop skilled technicians, including rare earth experts, from leaving the country.
Since last year, the Trump administration has taken a series of measures to boost the country's capability in rare earth refining:
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In August 2025, the Pentagon awarded US$10 million to NioCorp's Elk Creek project in Nebraska, which is set to become the first US niobium mine in late 2029. The project plans an on-site plant to process niobium, scandium and titanium and has tested separating rare earths from its ore. Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited the site on October 14, 2026.
Earlier this year, the DOE set up the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation to bring together its research on mining, processing, metallurgy, recycling, magnets and semiconductors.
On June 2, the office selected the Colorado School of Mines and Phoenix Tailings for US$134 million to build two rare earth demonstration facilities that turn mining and industrial waste into rare earth metals.
On August 7, the office launched the US$100 million Providing Opportunities for Specialized Education in Critical Technologies (PROSPECT) initiative to train students.
Robertson said the US faces a workforce shortage in the critical mineral sector and that the PROSPECT initiative aims to double the number of mining and minerals graduates within two years.
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