December 29, 2025
Meet a U.S. start-up trying to break China’s rare-earth monopoly
Companies like Phoenix Tailings, which recently began producing metal in New Hampshire, are using new processing methods to compete with Chinese suppliers.
Categories:
Alumni, In the Media, Energy and the Environment
Phoenix Tailings, co-founded by MIT alumni, is creating domestic supply chains for rare earth metals, key to the clean energy transition.
Image courtesy of Phoenix Tailings
New York Times reporter Rebecca Elliott spotlights Phoenix Tailings, a startup co-founded by DMSE alumni Tomás Villalón ’14 and Michelle Chao ’14 that is developing a sustainable process for refining rare-earth elements in the United States. Elliott notes that Phoenix Tailings created a closed-loop design for their manufacturing method that “distinguishes this process from the more energy-intensive techniques used in China, where workers scoop up molten metal with ladles.”
Read more in the New York Times.
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