Rare Earths Are Not Just Rocks: Five Studies Show Where China Wants the Value Chain to Go

Highlights

• Chinese researchers recovered nearly 40% more neodymium using a sunlight-driven sponge material and extracted 85% of gadolinium from real industrial wastewater
• A coal fly ash study recovered 83% of rare earths using citric acid—more than twice the yield of sulfuric acid—turning waste into a strategic resource
• Tsinghua University converted rare-earth-absorbing plants into a cerium-oxide/graphene catalyst in seconds, with an estimated 70% lower energy use than conventional methods
• China's export controls on rare earth mining, separation, and magnet technologies reinforce a downstream industrial model that could put up to $10 trillion in global production at risk