Summary: A Once-Shuttered California mine is trying to transform the rare earth industry by Maddie Stone

A US-based rare earth supply chain could boost clean energy and electric vehicles — and military weapons.

Recommendation

Rare earths are critical to making the magnets in many electronics, including cell phones and electric vehicles. China dominates the world’s supply, but the Western Hemisphere now has a contender: its only rare earth mine, closed for years, has reopened under new leadership. Maddie Stone reports in Fast Company that MP Minerals, the new owner of California’s Mountain Pass mine, plans to process rare earth metals with more environmentally sound methods than China uses. Anyone interested in economics, trade, politics, national security, or the US automotive, defense or high-tech supply chain has a stake in rare earths.

Take-Aways

• Rare earths are indispensable in many electronics, but their geographic distribution raises political issues.
• The rare earth business in China is notoriously polluting, but US-based MP Materials is trying to create a greener supply chain.
• Mining rare earths is just the first step; processing them raises additional geopolitical and environmental concerns.

Summary

Rare earths are indispensable in many electronics, but their geographic distribution raises political issues.

Manufacturers use rare earth minerals in magnets that are crucial to modern electronics, including cell phones, alternative energy sources, sophisticated weapons and electric vehicles (EVs) – a major, growing focus of demand. Adamas Intelligence projects that the rare earths used in magnets will quintuple in market value by 2040, based on the expansion of wind energy and EVs.

The contemporary economy would be unimaginable without rare earths, but China mines 58% of the world’s supply. It also handles about 90% of the process of separating different types of rare earth metals, refining them and preparing them for use in manufacturing.

“MP Materials says that the new US-based rare earth supply chain it is building will be greener than its counterparts in Asia, where the mining and processing of rare earths have created nightmarish pollution problems.”

Rare earths’ unique chemical structure makes them necessary in the powerful magnets inside the batteries used to power electric vehicles and generate wind energy. Demand for batteries that use rare earths is soaring in the United States and globally. Experts expect this trend to continue, but, at present China manufactures most of these batteries.

The rare earth business in China is notoriously polluting, but US-based MP Materials is trying to create a greener supply chain.

MP Materials bought the Mountain Pass mine in 2017, three years after the previous owner, Molycorp, went bankrupt. Located in California near the Nevada border, the re-opened mine was once responsible for 14% of the world’s total mined rare earths. MP Materials intends to start separating rare earth ores in the United States for the first time since 2015, thus challenging China, the rare-earth Goliath.

“The [US Department of Defense] declined to comment on the fraction of rare earths from these new US processing facilities that could ultimately make their way into defense applications.”

Julie Klinger, a University of Delaware geography researcher, envisions a “best-case scenario in terms of diversifying the global supply chain…in a comparably robust regulatory environment.” Even responsible rare earth mining isn’t particularly good for the environment. Some experts worry that global geopolitical tensions may drive up military demand for rare earths, making it difficult to cut back on mining despite its environmental impact. For now, according to a US Department of Defense spokesperson, the demand for rare earth for civilian uses such as clean energy “vastly exceeds projected defense demand.” Yet, the Defense Department has invested heavily in Mountain Pass and has contracted with Australia’s Lynas company to erect a rare earth refining factory in Texas by 2025.

Mining rare earths is just the first step; processing them raises additional geopolitical and environmental concerns.

Post-mining, processing and refining rare earths requires separating different types of metals and discarding waste byproducts. Processing combines rare earths into a liquid concentrate, extracts metals from it, and presses or “sinters” those metals into a “magnetic block which can be cut into a desired shape.”

“Owing to their chemical similarity, separating rare earths from one another is extraordinarily complicated. Separation processes…can include hundreds of different steps…”

MP Materials has sought funding for refining rare earths in the United States. In addition to its mining operation in California, it is building a factory in Texas to produce metal and magnets. Once the factory reaches full capacity, it will produce enough magnets annually for half a million EV motors, according to MP’s projections.

Molycorps, the mine’s previous owner, courted scandal with its handling of radioactive waste, but MP runs a unique “zero discharge” facility, recycling the water it uses and burying waste in lined landfills. The separation and disposal of low-value materials, like cerium – a less-useful rare earth that makes up 50% of Mountain Pass’s ore – could erode MP’s profitability. However, the company plans to sell it to companies that use it in manufacturing or in water treatment.

MP also plans to recycle scrap and used electronics (such as phones, hard drives and wind turbines) to reclaim their higher-value materials, including rare earths. Larger-scale recycling offers some hope of relieving the pressing need to mine rare earths.

About the Author

Journalist Maddie Stone holds a doctorate in environmental science. She is the former science editor of Gizmodo and founding editor of its climate offshoot, Earther. This story is from Grist, and her work has also appeared in National Geographic, The Atlantic and other publications. She runs The Science of Fiction newsletter and hosts Slate’s Future Tense Fiction podcast.