BMW and Yamaha invest in American rare earths start-up

Rare earths. We use this word a lot these days, and it immediately brings to mind China, which is the main producer (in 2022, it accounted for 70% of mining production of these essential metals which, thanks to their chemical properties, can be used to manufacture high-tech products).

It is made up of seventeen chemical elements, namely cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), mercury (Gd) and lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb) and yttrium (Y).

Since the coronavirus pandemic, Europe and the United States have been seeking to become less dependent on China for rare earth metals. Today we learn that an American start-up, Phoenix Tailings, has raised $43 million in a round of financing led by Envisioning Partners, with Yamaha, BMW, Escape Velocity and IQT also taking part.

200 tonnes of rare earths per year

Phoenix Tailings has a site in Burlington, Massachusetts, and plans to build another in Exeter, New Hampshire, which should be operational by summer 2025 and produce 200 tonnes of rare earths a year.

At present, rare earths are mainly processed using solvents that are harmful to the environment, but the American start-up claims to have succeeded in developing a refining process associated with "little or no emissions".

Big ambitions

The company now employs 33 people and claims to have signed supply contracts worth more than $100 million.

"As our dependence on advanced technologies grows, so does our dependence on critical metals, particularly lesser-known materials such as rare earths," said Nick Myers, co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Tailings.

"From automotive to defence to medical devices, rare earths are essential to modern manufacturing. At Phoenix Tailings, we're working to ensure that the US can meet this growing demand through ethical, sustainable and economically viable processes."

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