- US targets processing bottleneck rather than searching for new rare earth deposits
- Parallel extraction concept seeks profitability despite higher domestic labor and environmental costs
- Distributed processing model attempts reducing reliance on single vulnerable mining sites
China is responsible for much of the world’s rare earth refining capacity, giving it control over supply chains during trade disputes. That advantage was built by handling the costly and messy processing stage at scale, often with lower costs and fewer environmental restrictions.
