Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones and other electronics. While US scientists helped develop solvent extraction for rare earths in the 1950s, radioactive waste from the process gradually made it unpopular in the United States.
China began to rapidly expand in the industry starting during the 1980s and now controls 87% of global rare earths refining capacity, according to the International Energy Agency. That prowess has helped propel the country’s economy to the second-largest in the world.
Emerging Western rivals now offer the tantalizing prospect of processing the minerals in faster, cleaner and cheaper ways, if they can successfully launch.
“The existing rare earths refining process is a nightmare,” said Isabel Barton, a mining and geological engineering professor at the University of Arizona. “That’s why there are so many companies…
