The US Department of Energy has awarded $10 million via the Critical Materials Innovation Hub to seven early-stage R&D projects targeting more efficient recovery and refining of rare earth elements, gallium, copper and other critical materials. Funded work includes chloride-based molten salt electrolysis for heavy rare earth production at Case Western Reserve, hydro and bio-hydrometallurgical copper extraction at Colorado School of Mines, and nanobubble–surfactant–reactive oxygen leaching of copper sulphides at the University of Arizona. FAST Metals, Indium Corporation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Illinois will trial solid-phase extraction, advanced ion-exchange resins and redox-adsorbents to recover gallium and mixed rare earth oxides from bauxite-alumina circuits, zinc refinery residues and industrial byproduct streams.

Maglut Heavy Industries is developing a chromatography-based rare earth processing platform at its pilot-scale Long Beach, California facility, reporting 99.9%+ purity for individual rare earth oxides using its ARC-1 water-based separation process. The company designs and manufactures its own resin and ligand systems, aiming for globally competitive costs versus conventional solvent extraction as US defence contractors face January 2027 rules to eliminate Chinese rare earth magnets. A demonstration-scale plant is planned to be fully operational by August 2027, producing commercial rare earth oxides and potentially expanding to other critical minerals.

Gold retreated from a three-month high after July US PCE inflation printed at 3.7% headline and 3.3% core, with Comex December futures down 1% to $4,649.10/oz and spot off 1.4% at $4,592.53 by late morning in New York. The pullback follows a 14% August surge in bullion, driven by US Treasury bond-market intervention and a 28-tonne weekly inflow into gold-backed ETFs, ahead of Kevin Warsh’s first Jackson Hole speech as Fed chair. Gold and silver miners still post outsized August gains, with Eldorado up 55%, Equinox 53% and Newmont 41%.