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To compete with #China, #US needs to rebuild #RareEarthMetals talent from the ground up

Posted on April 14, 2026 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Two large container ships named 'Ocean Horizon' and 'Eastward Prosperity' facing each other on a shimmering ocean at sunset, with American and Chinese flags displayed. The ships are adorned with multiple shipping containers and there are buoys labeled 'New Routes New Realities' and 'Trade Shifts Power Shifts' in the foreground.

The US drive to reduce reliance on China for rare earths and critical minerals will take more than fixing resource and processing gaps, experts say, noting that the decisive factor would be talent.

Eroding industrial know-how, a weak education pipeline, and the lack of a consistent long-term strategy could complicate US ambitions to become a mining powerhouse and rival or even surpass China, they warned.

Rare earths are a critical component in many advanced weapons systems. Observers said China’s dominance in rare earths stemmed not only from its industrial scale but also from decades of accumulated engineering expertise, which the United States was struggling to rebuild after decades of decline

Idaho National Laboratory (#INL) – #CriticalMinerals Recycling Innovations

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Illustration of the state of Idaho featuring an INL Recycling Innovations facility, surrounded by mountains and greenery, with recycling materials displayed.

The critical materials in discarded rocks, e-waste and other sources don’t degrade over time and can be recovered. However, the U.S. lacks the infrastructure to recycle them.

Recycling facilities could tap into these largely untouched sources, helping meet U.S. demand. These facilities could be built far more quickly than new mines, which can take over a decade due to permitting, costs and infrastructure needs.

“The U.S. doesn’t recycle well,” said Bob Fox, a senior manager at INL. “There’s a willingness to recover critical materials from recycled sources, but there’s no infrastructure or market for it. Right now, critical materials recycling doesn’t have the economic incentives to drive infrastructure development.”

INL is working to change that by making recycling more efficient, less energy-intensive and economically viable.

“Recycling represents a crucial pathway for the U.S. to obtain critical materials, including rare earth elements like dysprosium,” said Arindam Mukhopadhyay, a staff scientist at INL. “Even critical materials we mine domestically, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese, can be recovered through recycling.”

Datavault AI working with #American Strategic Minerals to tokenize refined metals, #CriticalMetals

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Datavault AI (DVLT) said Thursday it has partnered with American Strategic Minerals to develop and monetize one of the latter’s resource extraction projects in Arizona through a $78.2 million digital tokenization initiative.

Under the agreement, American Strategic will receive up to $68.8 million, while Datavault AI may earn up to a 20% equity stake in the company upon meeting performance milestones under the tokenization program.

Datavault AI said antimony will be the first element tokenized, followed by gold, copper and silver. The initial phase will cover about 5% of the project’s antimony resource through the ASMI Antimony 1 Token.

The partnership sets the stage for the launch of an International Elements Exchange, the company added.