Rare Earth Elements

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and Precious Metals are vital materials for the US manufacturing sector. They are found in many consumer products like cell phones, computer memories, TV screens, fluorescent bulbs, hybrid cars, lasers, and more. They are also vital for many technologies used in our nation’s defense such as avionics, sonar, night vision, GPS, missile guidance systems and more. Although the US was the world leader in mining and producing REE materials for decades, China now controls over 90% of the world market representing over $7 Trillion of global GDP in end products.

The main reason why the US has stopped production is the amount of pollution caused by highly toxic amount of chemicals used to extract REEs from the ores containing them. To produce 1 ton of REEs generates 2000 tons of highly toxic material according to one study.

The technology being developed by IM Technologies promises to be at least 30% more energy efficient and completely environmentally benign. Initial proof-of-concept efforts have demonstrated extraction of metals from mixed sources. The methodology can be expanded to other waste sources, or end-of-life products, to achieve similar end results, as it is readily scalable and deployable to mitigate source-to-processing facility challenges. Developing this novel constant current thermal process to production level scale will significantly enhance domestic production of critical materials and stop US dependence on foreign sources.