Highlights

• ReElement Technologies joins CREaTe consortium to develop innovative domestic rare earth refining technologies.
• The company promotes a chromatography-based refining platform as an environmentally safer and potentially lower-cost alternative to traditional methods.
• U.S. Department of Defense is strategically investing in multiple emerging rare earth processing technologies to reduce dependence on China.

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ReElement Technologies (opens in a new tab), a subsidiary of American Resources Corporation (opens in a new tab), has announced membership in the Consortium for Rare Earth Technologies (opens in a new tab) (CREaTe). This is a U.S. industrial initiative that unites rare earth element (REE) miners, processors, users, and technology developers to foster collaboration and advance the U.S. domestic rare earth supply chain. On the surface, this aligns the company more closely with U.S. Department of Defense initiatives to build domestic rare earth refining capacity. The fact that ReElement is already a recipient of a $2 million DoD award under the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program (opens in a new tab) underscores Washington’s intent to cultivate multiple players in this space.

The Patented Pitch

As Rare Earth Exchanges (REEx) learned in a podcast interview with CEO Mark Jensen (opens in a new tab), ReElement promotes its chromatography-based refining platform as a differentiator—an environmentally safer, modular, and potentially lower-cost method compared to solvent extraction. The company’s framing of its technology as “ultra-pure” and scalable resonates with stated U.S. defense goals of reducing reliance on China. However, while patents and pilots exist, commercial-scale validation remains limited. Investors should note the speculative edge: claims of rapid scalability and unique positioning are forward-looking statements, not yet operational reality.  But ReElement does seem to be gaining momentum with access to capital, a growing list of partners, and, according to CEO Jensen, material progress in demonstrating a pathway to success at scale.  And this latter point remains the elusive key in the ex-China rare earth supply chain world.

Consortiums and Confidence

Membership inCREaTe is meaningful as it embeds ReElement within a DoD-coordinated ecosystem of contractors, miners, and processors. Yet, consortium participation alone doesn’t guarantee contracts or commercial success—it often serves as a networking and visibility mechanism. The company’s mention of pursuing Joint Directed Energy Consortium (JDEC) membership adds a layer of ambition, but again, this is aspirational positioning rather than achieved leverage.

Why It Matters for the Supply Chain

What’s notable here is less the announcement itself than what it represents: the Pentagon is deliberately spreading small bets across emerging refining technologies, from chromatography to electrochemistry, as it races to create a domestic magnet-to-missile supply chain. Even if ReElement’s process proves only partially viable, its inclusion signals U.S. urgency in diversifying refining methods away from Chinese solvent extraction dominance. 

But more, much more will be needed if the U.S. government wants to accelerate in any meaningful way rare earth element supply chain resilience.

Source: ACCESS Newswire, September 24, 2025

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