When will we leverage our above-ground mine?

Fast Company

5 days ago

Everyone in Washington knows the score: America's rare earth supply chain runs straight through China. It's one of the few issues before Congress that enjoys bipartisan support. But most of the solutions on the table remain shortsighted, dominated by two false binaries: Mine more at home or buy more from allies abroad. And yet, the most immediate solution is one barely being discussed.
What is missing from the conversation in both Congress and the Trump administration is a faster, cleaner option: recovering rare earth elements from materials we've already used. If we're serious about decoupling from China, recycling rare earth elements from end-of-life products is essential. However, current federal policy has yet to fully recognize this opportunity or support it at scale.
Rare earth elements power the permanent magnets that drive everything from consumer electronics and medical devices to data centers and defense systems. China controls over 90% of rare earth processing capacity and 70% of production. Billions of dollars have been invested in reshoring some of this value chain, but the pace is glacial, and opening new mines will take years, if not decades.
Recycling as an option
Meanwhile, the U.S. is sitting on an untapped domestic source of these very elements: smartphones, cars, appliances, hard drives, and other products we discard every year. Less than 1% of rare earth elements are recycled. Today, the vast majority end up in landfills or are shipped abroad for low-value scrap. With the right policy and technology support, we could be recycling a meaningful share of the rare earth elements we need, right here at home.
To be clear, recycling won't eliminate the need for new mining altogether, but it can dramatically reduce our dependence on an unstable supply chain. So why has Congress largely ignored this path? In part, it's due to outdated thinking. For decades, rare earth elements were treated as byproducts, not priorities. But the world has changed, and the stakes have risen. As we transition to an electrified economy where everything from personal mobility to manufacturing depends on electrified systems, we need to treat these elements as the national security assets they are and plan for their full lifecycle.
Three steps to hasten recycling
Recent moves by the Trump administration to invoke the Defense Production Act to support the critical minerals supply chain show that wake-up calls are finally being heard at the highest levels. But waivers alone won't solve the issue. The administration and Congress can take three concrete steps now to accelerate domestic rare earth recycling.
1. Treat end-of-life rare earth elements as a strategic resource. Just as we stockpile oil, we should be inventorying our above-ground, urban mine—the stream of magnets and motors already in circulation. This potential is huge: By 2035, the U.S. is expected to generate 43,000 metric ton s of end-of-life magnets that could otherwise end up in overseas scrapyards. This untapped 'above-ground mine' is a unique opportunity to secure our critical supply chains, and it should be protected with reinforced export controls.
2. Empower federal agencies to take action. The Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy are globally recognized as the most powerful accelerators of strategic industries, fueling America's rise in defense, technology, and energy leadership. Their contribution has never been more needed. Without immediate action to recycle our retired defense systems, we risk losing critical ground. Congress and the administration now have a unique opportunity to empower these agencies and secure vital elements, strengthen our innovation ecosystem, and ignite a domestic industry, before it's too late.
3. Direct federal budgets to scale domestic capacity. We now have the tools and technologies to reshape our critical elements supply chain. Traceability solutions are ready and aligned with DOD requirements to avoid entities of concern, yet the majority of rare earths are still processed in China. Agencies like the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and DOD form the powertrain to fast-track strategic projects and scale domestic capacity. What's needed now is for the administration to seize the full potential of this moment and direct budget to turn readiness into resilience.
Invest in infrastructure and incentives now
The urgency is real. China has once again demonstrated it can rapidly snap export controls in and out of effect, perpetuating volatile market dynamics, serving as a not-so-subtle reminder of how fragile our current supply chain really is. To break the dependency, Congress should support all viable paths to resilience, including setting policies that will leverage the existing above-ground mine.
We don't need to wait a decade to build new mines or hope for more reliable trade partners. The materials we need are already here, in products we've already used. We can start recovering rare earth elements here and now. But unlocking that potential will take broader thinking.
Policymakers must expand their focus beyond extraction and invest in the infrastructure and incentives that will save this above-ground mine. By keeping critical elements within our borders and recovering them from end-of-life materials, we can strengthen national security, drive economic growth, support American jobs, and secure the future of U.S. innovation and technological leadership. The industry stands ready; it is now up to the administration to capitalize on this momentum.