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
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.
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.
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.
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Building The Muscle For Tech Sovereignty: Critical Minerals Must Underpin India’s Semiconductor and Manufacturing Ambition
India is highlighting the importance of securing critical minerals to support its domestic semiconductor manufacturing and technological sovereignty goals.
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Quantum Computing Could Cut US Reliance on China for Rare Earths, Pasqal Says - News and Statistics
A quantum computing firm suggests the technology could help the United States reduce its dependency on Chinese rare earth supplies.
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U.S.-China Summit Concludes Without Joint Statement, Key Agreements
A recent U.S.-China summit concluded without significant agreements, maintaining existing uncertainties in the bilateral trade of critical materials.
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Malawi's Kangankunde Rare Earths Mine Set For Year-End Production
The Kangankunde rare earths mine in Malawi is scheduled to begin production by the end of the year.
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Asian Angle | Southeast Asia faces a false binary in US-China mineral trade
Southeast Asian nations are navigating trade pressures as they manage their positions within the U.S.-China competition over critical mineral supply chains.
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Quantum computing could help US reduce reliance on China's rare earth supply chain, tech CEO says
A technology CEO argues that quantum computing developments could assist the United States in decreasing its reliance on China's rare earth supply chain.
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Heavy Rare Earth Supply Chains Beyond China 2026
This report analyzes the status and growth of heavy rare earth supply chains operating independently of China in 2026.
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China Rare Earth Leverage vs US Industrial Power 2026
This analysis examines the geopolitical and economic tension between China's rare earth market dominance and United States industrial requirements.
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'Pandas are cute but US needs rare earth magnets': Trump-Xi meet so far leaves analysts wanting more
Analysts suggest that recent diplomatic discussions between the U.S. and China failed to address critical supply chain issues for rare earth magnets.
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From synthetic graphite to PCBs: Ashwini Vaishnaw says India is going deeper into smartphone manufacturing
India is deepening its smartphone manufacturing capabilities, including the production of synthetic graphite and printed circuit boards.