This Is How The US Can Become a Player in Rare Earth Metals
Episode
41 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Productivity, Relationships, Investing
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Biotech extraction methods: Companies like Alta Research Technology use genetically programmed proteins that target specific rare earth elements in waste streams, mine tailings, and e-waste. This approach eliminates environmental damage from traditional mining while accessing domestic resources. Berkeley researchers engineered harmless viruses to act as smart sponges, grabbing rare earths from water and releasing them with temperature and acidity changes for collection.
- ✓Rare-earth-free magnets: NIRON Magnetics commercialized technology from 2011 Department of Energy ARPA-E grants that creates magnets without rare earths. The company now scales production in Minnesota with a facility opening in 2027. This material engineering approach drastically reduces or eliminates rare earth requirements in magnets used across defense, automotive, and technology applications, directly challenging China's monopoly on magnet production.
- ✓Waste as strategic resource: The US produces massive quantities of e-waste, coal ash, and mine tailings containing recoverable rare earths. Old hard drives, cell phones, and batteries from earlier eras contain higher concentrations of rare earths than current products. Vulcan, only three years old, closed a 1.4 billion dollar Series A in August 2024, partnering with Reelement to recycle magnets and manufacture new ones domestically.
- ✓Equity valley of death: Breakthrough rare earth technologies face a specific funding gap that traditional debt-based government instruments cannot solve. In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm, created the Compass Fund specifically to provide early-stage equity for critical mineral innovations. This addresses the market failure where private venture capital avoids difficult deep-tech investments, leaving viable technologies stranded between lab and commercialization despite national security urgency.
- ✓Industrial biotech for mining: Rio Tinto deploys proprietary microbes in Arizona copper mines to extract metals that were previously uneconomical through traditional methods. This biotech solution operates cost-competitively while avoiding environmental damage from conventional refining. The approach demonstrates how biological processes can unlock value from closed mines, offering a template for rare earth extraction that combines profitability with cleaner operations than China's state-subsidized, environmentally destructive model.
What It Covers
The US faces critical dependence on China for rare earth minerals essential to defense and technology. Heidi Kribo Rediker from the Council on Foreign Relations presents breakthrough biotech and materials science innovations that could bypass traditional mining, offering cost-competitive domestic alternatives through engineered proteins, rare-earth-free magnets, and waste recycling technologies.
Key Questions Answered
- •Biotech extraction methods: Companies like Alta Research Technology use genetically programmed proteins that target specific rare earth elements in waste streams, mine tailings, and e-waste. This approach eliminates environmental damage from traditional mining while accessing domestic resources. Berkeley researchers engineered harmless viruses to act as smart sponges, grabbing rare earths from water and releasing them with temperature and acidity changes for collection.
- •Rare-earth-free magnets: NIRON Magnetics commercialized technology from 2011 Department of Energy ARPA-E grants that creates magnets without rare earths. The company now scales production in Minnesota with a facility opening in 2027. This material engineering approach drastically reduces or eliminates rare earth requirements in magnets used across defense, automotive, and technology applications, directly challenging China's monopoly on magnet production.
- •Waste as strategic resource: The US produces massive quantities of e-waste, coal ash, and mine tailings containing recoverable rare earths. Old hard drives, cell phones, and batteries from earlier eras contain higher concentrations of rare earths than current products. Vulcan, only three years old, closed a 1.4 billion dollar Series A in August 2024, partnering with Reelement to recycle magnets and manufacture new ones domestically.
- •Equity valley of death: Breakthrough rare earth technologies face a specific funding gap that traditional debt-based government instruments cannot solve. In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm, created the Compass Fund specifically to provide early-stage equity for critical mineral innovations. This addresses the market failure where private venture capital avoids difficult deep-tech investments, leaving viable technologies stranded between lab and commercialization despite national security urgency.
- •Industrial biotech for mining: Rio Tinto deploys proprietary microbes in Arizona copper mines to extract metals that were previously uneconomical through traditional methods. This biotech solution operates cost-competitively while avoiding environmental damage from conventional refining. The approach demonstrates how biological processes can unlock value from closed mines, offering a template for rare earth extraction that combines profitability with cleaner operations than China's state-subsidized, environmentally destructive model.
Notable Moment
The synthetic rubber program during World War Two provides a direct parallel to current rare earth challenges. When Japan cut off 90 percent of US natural rubber supplies from Southeast Asia, America rapidly scaled synthetic rubber technology through a Manhattan Project-level effort while simultaneously launching nationwide recycling campaigns. Without this dual approach combining innovation and resource recovery, US entry into the war would have been impossible.
Episode Transcript
UKG. Their HR, pay, and workforce management tools help business leaders empower their people. Because when work works, everything works. Learn more at ukg.com/work. Being a small business owner isn't just a career, it's a calling. Chase for Business knows how much heart and effort go into building something of your own. Manage all your business finances from banking to payments to credit cards all in one place with Chase's digital tools, plus access online resources designed to help your business thrive. Learn more at chase.com/business. Chase for business. Make more of what's yours. The Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices. Message and data rates may apply. JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA. Member, FDIC. Copyright, 2026. JPMorgan Chase and Company. Support for the show comes from Public. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S and P 500, then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com/market and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/market. Paid for by Public Investing, brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA and SIPC, advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC registered adviser. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com/disclosures. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Jill Weisingahl. And I'm Tracy Alloway. Tracy, you know, we do these episodes on various areas of technology in which China is perceived to be ahead of The US. Mhmm. And they're very interesting, and I learn a lot. It's not obvious to me, like, what lessons there are or anything. Some of these some of these things is, like, we're really far behind. I don't think we're ever gonna catch up. This is very interesting and academic, but what exactly is the point of talking about all this? I don't know if there's anything to do with this information. You know what I thought you were going to say is that we are sometimes accused of identifying strategic choke points Oh, yeah. Or areas of difficulty on the podcast and then coming up with absolutely no solutions for how to fix them. I will be the first to admit I have no solutions. If someone accuses me or of saying you have not offered any solutions, you know what? I …
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by In-Q-Tel
“In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm, created the Compass Fund specifically to provide early-stage equity for critical mineral innovations.”
company
“Heidi Kribo Rediker from the Council on Foreign Relations presents breakthrough biotech and materials science innovations”
“Companies like Alta Research Technology use genetically programmed proteins that target specific rare earth elements in waste streams, mine tailings, and e-waste.”
“NIRON Magnetics commercialized technology from 2011 Department of Energy ARPA-E grants that creates magnets without rare earths. The company now scales production in Minnesota with a facility opening in 2027.”
“Vulcan, only three years old, closed a 1.4 billion dollar Series A in August 2024, partnering with Reelement to recycle magnets and manufacture new ones domestically.”
“Vulcan, only three years old, closed a 1.4 billion dollar Series A in August 2024, partnering with Reelement to recycle magnets and manufacture new ones domestically.”
“In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital arm, created the Compass Fund specifically to provide early-stage equity for critical mineral innovations.”
“Rio Tinto deploys proprietary microbes in Arizona copper mines to extract metals that were previously uneconomical through traditional methods.”
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