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.

Copper hit a fresh Comex record of $6.7775/lb (~$14,940/t) on Wednesday before slipping 1.6% as an extreme London squeeze eased, with LME cash-to-three‑month spreads shrinking from over $500/t last week to $127/t. Tightness remains in prompt metal: more than 50,000 t were queued for withdrawal from LME warehouses, SHFE on‑warrant stocks fell for a sixth day, yet Comex inventories exceeded 675,000 t after 46 straight daily builds. Project Blue estimates 338,000 t of mine output lost in H1, leaving CRU’s projected 2026 surplus of 639,000 t looking closer to balance.