"Relying on a single, centralized mine represents a risk": US wants rare
earth independence from China but can DARPA actually make it work?

Date:
Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:20:00 +0000

Description:
US turns to DARPAs Smash program to fix rare earth processing bottlenecks instead of opening new mines.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter US targets processing bottleneck rather than searching for new rare earth deposits Parallel extraction concept seeks profitability despite higher domestic labor and environmental costs Distributed processing model attempts reducing reliance on single vulnerable mining sites China is responsible for much of the worlds rare earth refining capacity, giving it control over supply chains during trade disputes. That advantage was built by handling the costly and messy processing stage at scale, often with lower costs and fewer environmental restrictions.

The United States has spent years trying to rebuild its rare earth supply chain, but mining alone hasnt fixed the core problem. Processing remains the sticking point, and as Data Centre Dynamics reports, thats where the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is placing a high-risk bet. Rare earth elements arent, as the name suggests, truly rare, and the US already has access to large volumes of ore. DARPA's new Smash program moves away from finding new deposits and toward solving the processing bottleneck. Article continues below You may like China has extracted 1000g of uranium from just seawater - targets "unlimited battery life" by 2050, tapping into 4.5 billion tons of aquatic uranium Chinese scientists aim to save Moores Law by mass-growing 2D materials that 'outclass silicon' 'I do think we always have to think about, maybe even worry a little bit about, Chinese subsidies': Microsoft President says US firms should get ready for more competition from China SMASH - Proposers Day - YouTube Watch On Near-zero-waste separation DARPAs approach centers on what it calls near-zero-waste separation across
the periodic table. The goal isnt just rare earth elements but up to 80
stable elements that could be recovered from existing ore and waste streams.

So the challenge is processing, not mining, said Julian McMorrow, Smash lead and program manager at DARPAs Microsystems Technology Office. We want to develop technologies to take the industry from wasting over 99 percent of its feedstock to making use of the entire feedstock.

Traditional mining wastes enormous amounts of material during refinement.
More than two tons of ore and 13 tons of water can produce just one kilogram of copper, leaving most of the original material discarded.

Smash explores a parallel processing model that attempts to extract nearly everything from a shovel of dirt at once. That concept borrows ideas from industries such as petroleum refining, where multiple outputs are separated efficiently from a single input. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news
and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

The program also reflects concerns about relying on a single major site such as the Mountain Pass mine which once dominated global rare earth output but struggled when refining costs became uncompetitive.

DARPA notes that concentrating production in one location creates vulnerability if disruptions occur. A distributed model using varied feedstocks, including mining waste and recycled materials, could cut that exposure.

Smash will run as a 48-month effort split into two phases. The first will focus on proof-of-concept experiments, while the second will move toward working prototypes suitable for industrial mining environments.

Even if the technology succeeds in laboratory settings, scaling it economically could be tricky. Achieving profitability while maintaining
strict environmental and labor standards will be the real test. (Image
credit: DARPA) Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/relying-on-a-single-centralized-mine-represents- a-risk-us-wants-rare-earth-independence-from-china-but-can-darpa-actually-make -it-work


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