Rare earths
48 mines, separation plants, metal makers, and magnet manufacturers, plus U.S. deposits, production, capacities, programs, and policy.
Critical minerals
From deposits in the ground to finished products.
One place for what is actually happening in critical minerals: where the resources are and who mines them; who processes, refines, and manufactures; what governments are funding; which opportunities are open right now; and how policy and trade actions are reshaping supply. Five chains are covered in depth, from rare earths and graphite through gallium, germanium, and lithium. Every fact is dated and linked to its source.
Explore the chains
Graphite
35 facilities across mined-flake and synthetic routes through purification, shaping, graphitization, and anode finishing.
Gallium
18 facilities from byproduct recovery through high-purity metal, precursor chemicals, crystals, and substrates.
Germanium
10 facilities from byproduct recovery through high-purity metal, chemicals, crystals, wafers, and optical materials.
Lithium
67 facilities across hard-rock, brine, clay, and recycling routes through recovery to battery-grade carbonate and hydroxide.
17 funding opportunities
Federal grants, loans, and solicitations for critical minerals — what is open and what came before.
Policy timeline
Dated executive, legislative, and trade actions shaping all five chains.
Briefings
A tonne of lithium carbonate is not a tonne of lithium
Product mass, contained lithium, and lithium-carbonate equivalent answer different questions. Converting between them requires a named compound and a declared basis.
DOE cancelled Anovion’s $117 million graphite award after $13.8 million had gone out the door
The anode graphite startup held a nine-figure federal grant and first position on the tariff petition against its Chinese competition. Between October 2025 and April 2026 it lost both.
The US found Chinese anode graphite dumped and subsidized, then imposed no duties
The active anode material case cleared every step but the last one. It turned on material retardation, a test that asks whether imports are stopping an industry from getting established rather than injuring one that already exists.
National lab capabilities
Ames National Laboratory / Critical Materials Innovation Hub
DOE's lead lab for critical-materials science and home of the Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI), spanning separations chemistry, magnet materials, and recycling. 272 rare-earth publications, patents, and reports are listed below with links to their official OSTI records.
Idaho National Laboratory
INL's rare earth work centers on recovery from unconventional and secondary feedstocks, including bioleaching and e-waste value recovery. 147 documents are listed below with links to their official OSTI records.
NETL / METALLIC
The National Energy Technology Laboratory runs METALLIC and DOE's unconventional-feedstock rare earth programs — coal byproducts, acid mine drainage, and produced waters. 238 documents are listed below with links to their official OSTI records.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ORNL's separations-science and manufacturing programs cover rare earth solvent extraction, membrane separation, and magnet recycling — the deepest single-lab rare-earth publication corpus among DOE labs. 666 documents are listed below with links to their official OSTI records.
External headlines
News fetch last succeeded more than three days ago. Showing the last good snapshot.
-
Mkango’s German magnet recycling plant wins EU strategic status
The EU granted strategic status to Mkango's German magnet recycling plant, potentially streamlining the development of regional rare-earth recovery capacity.
-
Saudi Arabia’s Jabal Sayid discovery puts rare-earth ambitions to the test
A discovery at Jabal Sayid tests Saudi Arabia's capacity to develop domestic rare-earth mineral resources to meet its industrial ambitions.
-
EU says China will cut hybrid car exports by millions
China's plan to reduce hybrid car exports to the EU by millions of units will significantly impact downstream demand for battery and magnet materials.
-
Rare Earth Supply Chain West vs China Progress 2026
This report assesses the 2026 status of the geopolitical competition between Western nations and China to secure rare earth supply chains.
-
Modal Motors: Breaking the Rare-Earth Dependency With a New Generation of American-Made Drives
Modal Motors is developing American-made drives designed to eliminate rare-earth mineral dependency in motor manufacturing.
-
Lithium Triangle extraction hurdles: hydrogeological insights for project teams
Hydrogeological insights address technical challenges associated with extracting lithium from the Lithium Triangle, affecting project feasibility and timelines.
-
Paladin rare earth recycling expansion: supply-chain takeaways for engineers
Paladin’s expansion of rare earth recycling provides engineering benchmarks for scaling secondary material recovery within the supply chain.
-
NESR and Aramco develop lithium project in Saudi Arabia
NESR and Aramco are partnering to develop a lithium project in Saudi Arabia, expanding the kingdom's involvement in the battery metal sector.
-
Rare earth recycling can bridge US supply gap as mines face long timelines, Paladin says
Paladin suggests that rare earth recycling could address US supply shortages while domestic mining projects face long development timelines.
-
Beijing’s Real Deadline Is 10 January. America’s Is 1 January. | by Vikas | The Geopolitical Economist | Oct, 2026
This analysis discusses geopolitical deadlines in January 2027 that may influence trade policies and mineral supply stability between the US and China.