American Traction in Overturning Chinese Dominance in Rare Earth Metal Mining & Refining

An hour southwest of St. Louis, tucked away behind a tree line off Route EE, is the Pea Ridge Mine, once a place where workers pulled iron out of the ground. You could almost miss it driving by, but this seemingly unremarkable place has remarkable potential for the region and the country.

This dormant mine holds a deposit of something that lies at the heart of our increasingly high-tech world: rare-earth elements, used in everything from cellphones to missile systems to hybrid cars. The Missouri mine is one of the few places in the world where such an abundant deposit of rare earths has been found. But nothing about rare earths is simple.

Rare-earth metals are 15 elements with the atomic numbers 57 to 71 on the periodic table, as well as scandium and yttrium. The metals themselves amount to a meager $3 billion global industry, but they are essential in the production of $5 trillion worth of products.

Due to their scarcity and huge value, rare earths — and thus by extension the Pea Ridge Mine — lie at the heart of a complex geopolitical fight. It is a contest pitting China and the United States, and just about every other powerful nation on earth, into a new Great Game of diplomacy, business brinksmanship and a fight to dominate the market for these scarce elements. At the moment, China is winning. Over the past few decades, it has bought up nearly the entire supply chain of rare-earth metals and the products they’re used for, leaving other powers struggling to catch up.

In the U.S., however, some progress has been made in the development of domestic rare-earth supplies to regain some competitive edge against China. That’s the opportunity Jim Kennedy saw when he discovered the rare-earth deposit in what he thought was just an investment in an old mine.

“I bought an iron mine, and that ended up having an unbelievable rare-earth deposit,” he said.

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