Russia could disrupt a US-Europe rare earths supply chain

A US-Europe rare earths supply chain may get disrupted by sanctions against Russia, setting back Europe’s attempts to reduce reliance on China for the critical materials.

Launched last year by two North American companies, the initiative begins in Utah where a mining byproduct called monazite is processed into mixed rare earth carbonates. That is then shipped to Estonia for separating into individual rare earth elements, which are sold to downstream firms for producing things like rare earth permanent magnets, which are used in high-tech products such as electric vehicles and wind turbines.

The Silmet rare earth separation plant, located in the Estonian seaside town of Sillmäe, is run by Canada-listed Neo Performance Materials and is Europe’s only such commercial facility. But while Silmet does source mixed rare earth material from the US-headquartered Energy Fuels, 70% of the rare earth feedstock it processes actually comes from a single company in Russia, according to Neo.

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