[REEs] Timeline of China’s rare earth refining technologies and Concept of Parallelization

中国稀土精煉技術的時間表與平行化概念。 平行化概念上有前景，但在化學和後勤上很難大規模實施。目前，平行化可以應用於現有技術，以加快流程，而 Copilot 再次指出，對於平行操作，需要大規模的重新設計和資本投入。廢物管理和環境控制亦令平行設置更複雜，特別是在處理放射性或有毒副產品時。這個領域正朝向更具選擇性和效率的方法發展，未來可能支援平行模組──但目前，精確性仍比速度更重要。

[REEs] A Visual Chronicle of the 2025 Mineral Alliance

2025 稀土礦產聯盟的視覺編年史

"中国"商務部在十月早些時候宣布擴大對稀土及其技術出口的限制，以防止其在軍事及其他敏感領域的使用。 喺2025年10月20日，美國同澳洲簽咗一份價值85億美元嘅稀土同關鍵礦產協議，目的係確保供應鏈同應對中國嘅主導地位。呢份協議係全球稀土交易市場近期最重要嘅一單交易。

China's Commerce Ministry earlier October announced expanded curbs on the export of rare earths and its technologies, seeking to prevent their use in the military and other sensitive sectors.

On October 20, 2025, the United States and Australia signed an $8.5 billion rare earth and critical minerals agreement aimed at securing supply chains and countering China’s dominance. This is the most significant recent deal in the global rare earth trading landscape.

Here’s a detailed summary of the key developments:

US–Australia Rare Earths Agreement

Signed by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House.

Scope: A strategic framework to secure supply chains for rare earths and critical minerals essential to defense and clean energy sectors.

Investment Pipeline: Up to $8.5 billion in joint projects, including rare earth processing facilities in Australia.

Participants: Companies like Alcoa are expected to be involved in the trilateral project groups.

Geopolitical Context: The deal comes as China tightens export controls on its own critical minerals, prompting Western allies to diversify sourcing.

Diplomatic Tone: While the deal strengthens US-Australia ties, Trump reportedly took care not to antagonize China directly during the signing.

Other Notable Developments

China’s Export Restrictions: Beijing has imposed stricter rules on rare earth exports, especially heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium, intensifying global supply concerns.

Western Strategic Moves:

The EU and Canada are also ramping up rare earth investments, though no deals as large as the US-Australia pact have been announced this month.

US-based companies like USA Rare Earth and NioCorp are receiving increased institutional backing and favorable analyst ratings.

Strategic Implications

This deal is not just economic—it’s geopolitical, reinforcing the AUKUS alliance and signaling a shift toward Western-led rare earth independence.

Analysts caution that while the deal is a strong start, it won’t immediately displace China’s dominance, which still controls over 60% of global rare earth refining.

SOURCE: COPILOT

[REEs] Parallelization can be used to improve the rare earth metal refining process output?

平行化可以用來改善稀土金屬精煉流程的產量嗎？

For rare earth metal refining, a country with an older technology can simply multified the operation unit (in parallel) for the separation to achieve multiple times output per year, since separation is the critical step. While other steps such as ore-processing can simply be increased in the batch size. And here is the comment from an AI.

Your understanding is partially correct, but rare earth separation is far more complex and less scalable than it might seem. Simply multiplying units or increasing batch sizes doesn't guarantee proportional output gains.

Here's a breakdown of the key factors:

Why Rare Earth Separation Is Hard to Scale

Separation is the most technically demanding step: Rare earth elements (REEs) are chemically similar, making their separation extremely complex. It involves multi-stage solvent extraction, ion exchange, or membrane-based techniques, often requiring hundreds of stages.

Parallelization isn’t straightforward: Unlike ore crushing or roasting, separation units require precise control of pH, temperature, and flow rates. Scaling by duplication introduces challenges in maintaining consistency, yield, and purity across units.

Expertise bottleneck: Countries with older tech often lack the specialized engineering talent and process knowledge needed to optimize and troubleshoot parallel separation systems.

Environmental and regulatory constraints: Separation generates toxic waste and requires strict environmental controls. Scaling up means scaling compliance, which can be costly and slow.

While ore-processing steps can often be scaled by increasing batch sizes or equipment capacity, rare earth separation is not easily multiplied in parallel due to its chemical complexity, precision requirements, and environmental risks. Countries with older technology may face diminishing returns unless they invest in process innovation, automation, and skilled personnel.

[REEs] Top Countries with High-Purity Rare Earth Refining Capabilities 具備高純度稀土精煉能力的主要國家

China, the United States, Australia, and Brazil lead in high-purity rare earth metal production and refining, while countries like Turkey, Myanmar, and Pakistan are emerging players with significant reserves but limited refining capacity.

Here’s a comprehensive overview of the global landscape:

Emerging or Strategic Players

Turkey

Reserves: Claims of 694 million tons of rare earth elements in Beylikova, Eskişehir—possibly the world’s second-largest deposit.

Technology: Currently lacks full-scale refining infrastructure but aims to become a top-five global player.

Partnerships: In talks with the U.S. for joint development and refining projects.

Myanmar (Burma)

Production: China’s largest external source of rare earths, especially heavy rare earths like dysprosium.

Technology: Limited domestic refining; most raw materials are exported to China for processing.

Concerns: Mining is concentrated in conflict zones, with environmental and human rights issues.

Pakistan

Reserves: Rich in monazite, xenotime, and bastnaesite across Punjab, Balochistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Technology: No domestic refining yet; first rare earth shipment sent to the U.S. in 2025 under a $500M deal.

Russia

Reserves: Modest but strategic.

Technology: Developing refining capacity, especially for defense and aerospace needs.

India

Reserves: Coastal monazite sands.

Technology: Developing refining through state-owned entities; still limited in scale.

Why Refining Matters

Producing high-purity rare earths involves:

Separation of chemically similar elements.

Purification to 99.9%+ levels for use in magnets, lasers, and electronics.

Environmental controls to manage radioactive byproducts.

Pakistan and Chinese Refining Technology: What’s True So Far

Strategic Cooperation Exists: Pakistan and China have a long-standing partnership under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which includes mining and mineral development. China has helped Pakistan explore and assess rare earth deposits, especially in Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Technology Transfer Is Limited: While China has provided geological surveys and some technical support, Pakistan has not yet acquired full-scale rare earth refining technology. The country lacks the infrastructure for high-purity separation and processing — the most complex and critical part of the supply chain.

Recent Developments:

In 2025, Pakistan made its first rare earth shipment to the U.S., including neodymium and antimony, under a $500 million deal with U.S. Strategic Metals.

This suggests growing international interest, but the refining was likely done outside Pakistan — possibly in the U.S. or China.

Future Potential: Pakistan could develop refining capabilities through joint ventures or tech transfer agreements, especially with China or Western partners. But as of now, it remains primarily a raw material supplier.

[REEs] 加速稀土金屬提煉進程 Speeding up the rare earth metal refining process

稀土金屬精煉製程速度慢、複雜且耗能，這主要是因為稀土元素的化學性質非常相似，導致分離困難。加快這項製程需要採用製程強化和新型分離技術，以減少步驟數量、試劑消耗和總時間。

The process of rare earth metal refining is notoriously slow, complex, and energy-intensive, primarily because the elements have very similar chemical properties, making their separation difficult. Speeding up the process involves adopting process intensification and novel separation technologies to reduce the number of steps, consumption of reagents, and overall time.

以下是加速稀土金屬精煉的關鍵策略和新興技術：

Here are the key strategies and emerging technologies to accelerate rare earth metal refining:

1. Advancements in Separation Techniques 分離技術的進步

傳統的工業分離方法，主要是溶劑萃取（液-液萃取），雖然效率很高，但需要數百個混合澄清器級才能達到高純度，耗時耗力。新方法旨在以更少的步驟實現分離：

Traditional industrial separation, primarily solvent extraction (liquid-liquid extraction), is highly effective but requires hundreds of mixer-settler stages to achieve high purity, which is time-consuming. New methods aim to achieve separation in far fewer steps:

    Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE 固相萃取) / Adsorption: This involves using specialized adsorbent materials (like metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), mesoporous materials, or functionalized polymers) that have high selectivity to bind rare earth elements (REEs) from the solution.

        Benefit: Rapid adsorption kinetics, significantly lower solvent consumption, and fewer stages compared to solvent extraction.

    Nanotrap Structures 奈米阱結構: Rationally designed materials, such as specific MOFs, are being developed as "nanotraps" that are highly responsive to the size variation of different rare-earth ions, potentially allowing for high-efficiency separation in a single step.

    Membrane Separation: Utilizing specialized membranes that allow selective passage of different rare-earth ions can streamline the separation process.

    Ionic Liquids and Deep Eutectic Solvents 離子液體和低共熔溶劑: These are alternative, often less toxic, and highly tunable solvents that can be designed for improved selectivity and efficiency in the extraction process, potentially reducing the number of separation cycles needed.

2. Process Intensification and Optimization 流程強化與最佳化

Intensification focuses on making existing steps faster, smaller, and more efficient through engineering and control:

    Continuous Countercurrent Processes 連續逆流工藝: Optimizing the flow in solvent extraction using continuous multi-stage counterflow separators (like advanced mixer-settler cells) can maximize efficiency and throughput.

    Microwave-Assisted Extraction (MAE 微波輔助萃取) and Subcritical Water Extraction (SWE 亞臨界水萃取): Applying microwave energy or using water in its subcritical state can accelerate the initial leaching of REEs from the ore concentrate or secondary sources (like electronic waste), reducing reaction times.

    AI-Enabled Process Control 人工智慧製程控制: Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to monitor and control the complex chemical conditions (like pH, temperature, and reagent flow) in real-time can optimize the separation process, ensuring maximum yield and speed while minimizing errors and resource waste.

3. Streamlined Conversion to Metal 簡化的金屬轉換

The final step of converting rare earth oxides (REOs) or salts to high-purity metal can also be a bottleneck. Novel methods can eliminate intermediate steps:

    REMAFS (Rare Earth Metals from Alternative Fluoride Salt 來自替代氟化鹽的稀土金屬): This new process bypasses the traditional step of converting the separated rare-earth oxides back into a fluoride salt before reduction to metal. By starting with a specific sodium rare-earth fluoride salt, the number of overall steps is reduced, cutting out time and cost.

    Electrochemical/Electrolytic Refining 電化學/電解精煉: While conventional for some REEs, improving the efficiency of the molten salt electrolysis process—which converts the rare-earth compounds into metal—can lead to faster production rates.

4. Alternative Feedstock Utilization (Recycling) 回收

Focusing on secondary sources (recycling) can sometimes be faster than processing raw ore, which requires extensive crushing, milling, and beneficiation:

    Direct Recycling 直接回收: Developing direct methods to recover REEs from end-of-life products (like magnets in hard drives or electric vehicle batteries) can skip much of the initial "rock to concentrate" stage, leading to a quicker overall cycle.

    Flash Heating Isolation 閃蒸加熱隔離: A recently developed technique involves "flash heating" materials like fly ash (containing REEs) with a quick, high-current pulse. This can shatter glass microstructures that encapsulate the metals and convert less-soluble compounds into more extractable oxides in seconds, drastically speeding up the pre-leaching preparation.

Picture Source: Copilot

Picture Source: Gemini

CONTENT SOURCE: Gemini.

[REEs] 稀土提煉難在哪里？ Why Rare Earth Metal Refining Process is hard?

稀土金屬的精煉過程涉及多個複雜步驟，包括採礦、礦石加工、分離及純化，通常使用化學方法來分離單一元素。

The refining process of rare earth metals involves several complex steps, including mining, ore processing, separation, and purification, often using chemical methods to isolate individual elements.

Overview of the Refining Process

Mining: The first step in obtaining rare earth metals is mining the ores that contain them. Common minerals include monazite, bastnäsite, and xenotime, which are primarily found in countries like China, the United States, and Australia. Mining methods often involve open-pit techniques, which can lead to significant environmental impacts. 

Ore Processing: Once the ore is extracted, it undergoes preliminary processing to concentrate the rare earth elements. This typically involves crushing, milling, and flotation to reduce the volume of material that needs to be refined. 

Separation: The separation of rare earth elements is particularly challenging due to their similar chemical properties. This is often achieved through ion-exchange methods, where complexing agents like ethylene diamine tetraacetate (EDTA) are used to selectively bind to specific rare earth ions. The process involves passing a mixed rare earth solution through a column packed with resin that retains the ions based on their stability and interaction with the complexing agent. 

Purification: After separation, further purification is required to isolate individual rare earth elements. This may involve additional chemical processes, such as solvent extraction or precipitation, to achieve the desired purity levels. The purification process can generate toxic and radioactive waste, posing significant environmental challenges. 

Environmental Considerations: The refining of rare earth metals is associated with various environmental issues, including soil erosion, water contamination, and the generation of hazardous waste. The Baotou region in China, known for its rare earth production, has faced severe environmental degradation due to mining and refining activities. 

The Critical Bottleneck: Separation of Rare Earth Elements (REEs)

Why it's hard:

Chemical similarity: REEs are all trivalent cations (mostly +3 oxidation state) with nearly identical ionic radii and electron configurations. This makes them notoriously difficult to distinguish chemically.

Multi-stage complexity: Separation often requires hundreds of sequential solvent extraction stages to isolate individual elements like Neodymium or Dysprosium. Each stage must be precisely tuned for pH, ligand concentration, and phase ratios.

Ion-exchange and solvent extraction: These methods demand:

Highly selective ligands (e.g., EDTA, DTPA)

Stable emulsions and phase separation

Tight control over temperature and flow rates

Resin columns or mixer-settler cascades that are expensive and hard to scale

Scaling challenges: While lab-scale separation is achievable, industrial-scale reproducibility is rare outside China. Western firms often lack the decades of tacit knowledge and infrastructure needed to scale up without massive losses or contamination.

Environmental and regulatory constraints: The separation process generates radioactive and toxic waste, especially when dealing with thorium-bearing monazite. Strict environmental laws in the West make it harder to operate economically.

稀土提煉難在哪里？因為這些元素太相似了。想像一下，如果你只靠性格特徵，用化學的低語去分辨17對長得一模一樣的雙胞胎。

“Rare earth refining isn’t hard because the chemistry is exotic—it’s hard because the elements are too alike. Imagine trying to sort 17 identical twins by personality alone, using only chemical whispers.” 

Conclusion 

稀土金屬的精煉過程非常複雜，需要先進的化學技術才能有效地分離和純化這些珍貴元素。隨著對稀土金屬的需求持續增長，解決其開採和精煉過程對環境的影響，對於行業的可持續發展至關重要。 

 The refining process of rare earth metals is intricate and requires advanced chemical techniques to effectively separate and purify these valuable elements. As demand for rare earth metals continues to grow, addressing the environmental impacts of their extraction and refining will be crucial for sustainable practices in the industry.

Why Is It So Hard for Others to Catch Up in Rare Earth Refining？