Highlights

• Rare Earth Exchanges and Sansom Staffing launch a strategic partnership to create a specialized talent placement engine for rare earth and critical mineral supply chain professionals.
• The partnership addresses a critical workforce shortage spanning mining engineers, metallurgists, solvent extraction chemists, magnet sales executives, and environmental compliance experts as the U.S. and allies rebuild capacity outside China.
• Sansom Staffing brings boutique-level global recruiting with offices in Minneapolis, Dallas, Australia, and South Africa, emphasizing deep industry immersion and long-term retention over transactional placements.

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Salt Lake City, UT— Rare Earth Exchanges™ LLC (REEx) forms a strategic partnership with Sansom Staffing (opens in a new tab), a 100% women-owned, BBB-accredited global recruiting firm, to create a specialized talent placement engine focused exclusively on the rare earth and critical mineral supply chain.

If rare earths are the backbone of advanced manufacturing, then talent is the nervous system.

From mining engineers and metallurgists to solvent-extraction chemists, magnet sales executives, environmental compliance experts, geologists, and advanced materials scientists—the rare earth industry across the supply chain faces a growing human-capital bottleneck as geopolitical pressures intensify.

This partnership is designed to solve it.

From Mine to Magnet: A Talent Pipeline for the Entire Value Chain

Under the ongoing and developing Rare Earth Exchanges market platform, Sansom Staffing will operate as a preferred talent partner to accelerate recruitment across:

• Rare earth mining and exploration
• Mineral processing and solvent extraction
• Metallurgy and alloy development
• Magnet manufacturing and materials science
• Environmental and permitting compliance
• Supply chain, logistics, and export control expertise
• Executive and board-level leadership

As the U.S., Australia, and Europe work to rebuild separation capability and magnet manufacturing capacity outside China, demand for specialized talent has outpaced traditional recruiting models. The industry cannot scale without the engineers and operators who understand SX circuits, actinide control, alloy science, and advanced magnet production.

This partnership addresses that structural gap.

A Relationship-Driven Model in a Technical Market

Sansom Staffing brings a differentiated, boutique-level yet global recruiting strategy to a highly technical sector. Unlike high-volume transactional staffing models, Sansom prioritizes:

• Deep industry immersion
• Targeted national and global talent sourcing
• Cultural and technical alignment
• Long-term retention over short-term placement

With experienced, values-based leadership and a flexible service model—spanning contract, direct hire, and executive search—Sansom Staffing provides customized solutions tailored to the rare earth and advanced materials ecosystem.

In a market where expertise is scarce and projects are capital-intensive, quality matters more than volume.

Rare Earth Exchanges: Market Infrastructure Meets Human Capital

Rare Earth Exchanges operates as an investor intelligence-driven communications and market platform dedicated to strengthening ex-China rare earth supply chains. Through market analysis, strategic convening, digital exchange architecture, and industrial coordination, REEx connects miners, processors, manufacturers, policymakers, and investors.

Now, through this partnership, REEx expands its role into workforce mobilization.

“Industrial sovereignty is not just about processing capacity,” said Kirstyn Sansom (opens in a new tab),  CEO of Sansom Staffing, with presence in both.  “It’s about people. If America is going to build, commence, and scale out solvent extraction plants, magnet facilities, and advanced materials hubs, we must mobilize the engineers, chemists, and leaders who make those facilities run,” cited Sansom.

According to REEx co-founder and CEO Daniel O’Connor, “Sansom Staffing with a global presence, technical pedigree and a vast network from Perth to Dallas to Cape Town now invests alongside REEx to deliver the next generation talent solutions to help the West accelerate the scaling of ex-China rare earth and critical mineral supply chains.”

The collaboration creates a secure, values-driven pipeline for critical talent, ensuring that U.S. and allied projects can access the specialized expertise required to compete globally.

This partnership sends a clear message:

The rare earth sector is professionalizing.

It is scaling. And it is building the human capital foundation necessary to challenge China’s dominance.

In a globally competitive and technically demanding market, talent placement is no longer peripheral—it is strategic infrastructure.

Rare Earth Exchanges and Sansom Staffing are positioning workforce alignment as a central pillar of U.S. critical mineral resurgence.

The race to secure rare earth independence will not be won by ore alone.

It will be won by expertise.

About Rare Earth Exchanges LLC

Dedicated to rare earth element and critical mineral supply chain transparency, accessibility, and insight, Salt Lake City, Utah-based Rare Earth Exchanges LLC is a market and investor media and communications, investor information, and strategic market exchange platform focused on accelerating and strengthening ex-China rare earth and critical mineral supply chains. The platform launched in October 2024 connects industry leaders, policymakers, investors, and operators to accelerate domestic and allied supply chain resilience.

About Sansom Staffing

Sansom Staffing is a 100% women-owned, BBB-accredited global recruiting firm providing relationship-based, ethical staffing solutions across multiple industries. In the rare earth and advanced materials sector, the firm specializes in placing highly technical, niche professionals through customized contract, direct-hire, and executive search solutions, emphasizing long-term retention and cultural alignment. Sansom Staffing maintains offices in Minneapolis and Dallas as well as in Australia and South Africa.

Learn more at:

info@rareearthexchanges.com;

kirstyn@sansomstaffing.com