American Resources Portfolio Company ReElement Technologies Launches Rare Earth Refining Service

American Resources portfolio company ReElement Technologies has launched a toll processing service to refine recycled permanent magnets into high-purity rare earth oxides, including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. The service achieves purities of 99.5% or greater at a processing cost of $25 to $35 per kilogram, enabling a fully circular US-based magnet supply chain. The company also refines other critical minerals such as gallium, germanium, and cobalt.

ReElement Technologies, a portfolio company of American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC), has launched an innovative urban mining-to-magnet tolling service for rare earth elements. The service achieves purities of 99.5% or greater in separating and purifying recycled rare earth magnets into high-purity Nd, NdPr, Dy, and Tb oxides at competitive costs of $25-35 per kilogram [1]. This initiative establishes a fully integrated U.S.-based magnet supply chain, reducing dependence on Chinese sources for critical minerals.

The company's feedstock-agnostic platform processes materials from various sources including wind turbines, automotive rotors, and hard disk drives, with recovery rates exceeding 90%. ReElement's patented technology, originally developed by Purdue, offers advantages over traditional methods by using fewer chemicals, requiring less space, and generating minimal waste [1]. This technology platform enables rapid scaling and deployment across multiple locations, a crucial differentiator in the capital-intensive critical minerals sector.

ReElement's new toll processing service for rare earth magnets creates a competitive domestic supply chain alternative to Chinese dominance. The pricing strategy is particularly noteworthy, as it addresses the primary barrier that has prevented the establishment of domestic rare earth supply chains. By offering high-purity oxides at costs competitive with Chinese pricing, ReElement is positioning itself as a critical supplier for both commercial and defense applications that require secure supply chains [1].

The company's ability to process diverse feedstocks demonstrates the versatility of their technology and expands their potential market. This announcement is strategically important as many of the elements they're processing – Terbium, Gallium, Germanium – are subject to China's recent export controls or near-monopoly production. By establishing domestic processing capability for these materials at 99.9% to 99.999% purity, ReElement positions itself as a critical supplier for both commercial and defense applications that require secure supply chains [1].

ReElement Technologies' launch of its urban mining-to-magnet tolling service represents a significant advancement in domestic critical mineral processing. The company's technology platform offers substantial advantages over traditional solvent extraction methods: reduced chemical usage, smaller footprint, minimal waste generation, and faster permitting. These factors enable rapid scaling and deployment across multiple locations – a crucial differentiator in the capital-intensive critical minerals sector [1].

ReElement is feedstock-agnostic and has successfully processed magnets sourced from wind turbines, automotive rotors, power tool rotors, hard disk drives, electric motors, and magnetic separators. The company has also recycled magnetic swarf from magnet manufacturing operations, returning it to the production cycle. In the coming months, ReElement expects to announce additional tolling partnerships involving SEG, SEG+, MREC, MREO, and other ore-based feedstocks - in addition to existing antimony refining services [1].

ReElement's refining platform, originally developed by Purdue for pharmaceutical purification, has been reengineered to separate rare earths and critical minerals with exceptional efficiency, scalability, and purity. Unlike legacy solvent extraction methods, it uses far fewer chemicals, requires less space, and generates minimal waste - making it faster to permit and simpler to co-locate near feedstock or end-use customers [1].

This breakthrough eliminates a major chokepoint in global critical mineral supply chains, which has been dominated by single-source processing, no longer tenable as the U.S. must forge critical mineral supply chain independence, both through processing in the US and in partnership with allies abroad [1].

References:
[1] https://www.stocktitan.net/news/AREC/re-element-technologies-launches-urban-mining-to-magnet-tolling-v0xpq2elh4ss.html