Highlights

• ReElement Technologies successfully developed commercial protocols to produce high-purity germanium for defense and industrial applications.
• The company uses an innovative continuous chromatography process with lower costs and modular scalability for multiple mineral refining.
• Domestic germanium production is strategically important, as the U.S. currently has no significant supply.
• China dominates global germanium production.

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American Resources Corporation (opens in a new tab) (NASDAQ: AREC), via its subsidiary ReElement Technologies (opens in a new tab), announced it has developed commercial protocols to produce >99.9% pure separated germanium from both recycled and ore-based feedstocks. The target customer base includes defense and industrial partners needing 99.9%–99.999% purity, with potential sourcing from virgin supply or customer-provided recycled material.

Rare Earth Exchanges (REEx) has interviewed CEO Mark Jensen (opens in a new tab) and that podcast will be uploaded soon to our YouTube channel (opens in a new tab).

Mark Jensen—man on a mission for U.S. critical mineral and rare earth supply chain resiliency.

Jensen touted the achievement as proof of the company’s “most cost-effective, versatile, and scalable” refining solution on the market. The production process uses continuous chromatography, adapted from pharmaceutical purification, which the company claims offers lower CapEx/OpEx, avoids toxic solvents, and scales modularly for multiple minerals and feedstocks.

Why It Matters

Germanium is a critical mineral with key applications in semiconductors, infrared optics (night vision, thermal imaging), fiber optics, and high-efficiency solar cells. The U.S. has no significant domestic germanium production—China dominates global supply—making domestic refining capability a strategic win if it can be delivered at commercial scale.

ReElement’s pitch hinges on midstream flexibility: handling both recycled and mined feedstocks, producing multiple minerals, and reducing permitting and logistics challenges by co-locating processing near supply or demand centers.

Critical Questions for Investors

1. Scale & Throughput: The announcement confirms purity levels but gives no data on production volumes, current run rates, or projected capacity. Can ReElement move beyond lab and pilot batches into sustained, tonnage-scale output?
2. Customer Commitments: Are there signed offtake agreements or Letters of Intent from defense primes or semiconductor manufacturers, or is this a “build it and they will come” approach?
3. Cost Validation: The claim of “most cost-effective” solution lacks benchmark comparisons. How do CapEx/OpEx numbers stack against solvent extraction or other chromatography-based competitors?
4. Feedstock Security: Where will ore-based germanium feed come from, given global supply constraints and China’s export controls?
5. Technology Risk: Has the process been independently validated at commercial scale, and what are the yield and recovery rates under industrial operating conditions?

Investor Takeaway

ReElement’s announcement is strategically interesting—high-purity germanium is essential to both U.S. defense and commercial markets, and a domestic, modular refining solution could fill a critical supply chain gap. However, the path from 99.9% purity in test runs to reliable commercial volumes is steep, and this team has yet to prove it can scale consistently. Without transparency on capacity, customers, and costs, investors should treat this as a promising technical milestone, not a commercial turning point—yet.

Source: American Resources Corporation – Author: Company News Release