How Rare Earths Are Processed

Rare earth processing is the chain of steps that turns mined ore into pure oxides and metals. The ore is concentrated and broken down with acid. Then the elements are split apart by solvent extraction and refined into metal. Separation is the hardest step, and China does about 91% of it for magnet rare earths.

A rare earth mine on its own doesn't produce anything a magnet maker can use. Until the elements are pulled apart, the mine has a mixed product that only a handful of plants in the world can treat. That's why separation plants make headlines more often than new mines do.

What are the steps in rare earth processing?

Rare earth processing has five main steps, each often run by a different company. The US Department of Energy describes them in its 2022 review of the magnet supply chain.

1. Concentrating. Mined ore is crushed and upgraded with some mix of gravity, magnetic, electrostatic and flotation methods to strip away waste rock.
2. Cracking. The concentrate is broken down chemically so it will dissolve. Bastnaesite concentrate, for example, needs high-temperature cracking with sulphuric acid or other reagents.
3. Leaching. The rare earths are dissolved into a solution, leaving the rest behind.
4. Separation. Solvent extraction splits the solution into individual rare earths, which are recovered as oxides or chlorides.
5. Metal making. The oxides are refined into metal, most often by electrowinning or sodium reduction, ready to be made into alloys and magnets.

Our guide Rare Earth Magnets Explained picks up the story from metal to finished magnet.

How does solvent extraction work?

Solvent extraction works by mixing the rare earth solution with a solvent. The solvent grabs some elements a little more easily than others. The mix settles into two layers, which are drawn off and passed on to the next tank. Each tank is called a mixer-settler, and a separation line may use hundreds of them, the DOE says.

Neighbouring elements are so alike that splitting just neodymium from praseodymium can take 30 mixer-settlers. The process uses large amounts of acid, caustic and water, and the DOE names wastewater treatment and solvent purchases as key cost drivers. Researchers are working on extracting chemicals that need less acid and caustic, but solvent extraction is still the standard.

Why is separating rare earths so hard?

Separating rare earths is hard because the elements are chemically similar and usually occur together in the same minerals. A mine doesn't produce neodymium on its own. It produces a mix of rare earths in proportions set by the deposit.

So a plant has to be built around one ore's mix. It also has to deal with every element in the feed, even cheap ones like cerium and lanthanum. Our guide Rare Earth Deposit Types explains how the mix changes from one kind of deposit to another.

What is a mixed rare earth carbonate?

A mixed rare earth carbonate is a semi-finished product holding all of an ore's rare earths together, made before separation. It lets a company without its own separation plant sell to one that has one. The DOE describes Energy Fuels in Utah sending rare earth carbonate to the Silmet plant in Estonia for separation.

Companies sell at this stage partly because separation needs scale. The DOE notes that rare earth separation may not be economical at small scales. For a junior company, selling a carbonate or concentrate can be a faster route to revenue than building a plant of its own.

Why is radioactivity a problem in rare earth processing?

Radioactivity is a problem because many rare earth ores contain thorium and uranium. Both have to be removed and stored safely. Monazite was largely treated as a waste product until recently because of its thorium, the DOE says. Small amounts of uranium and thorium have to be separated from the rare earth streams, which adds to costs and permits.

Waste storage can threaten a whole operation. The DOE notes that Lynas's processing plant in Malaysia has at times faced the threat of being shut down over government concerns about its onsite storage of low-level radioactive waste. Energy Fuels, by contrast, is mainly a uranium producer and can handle the thorium and uranium from monazite.

How much rare earth processing does China do?

China does about 91% of the world's separation and refining of magnet rare earths, according to the International Energy Agency, with Malaysia a distant second. For heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium, the DOE put China's share of separation even higher, near 100%.

That's a bigger lead than China has in mining. It means a mine in Australia or North America may still depend on Chinese plants unless it has its own separation route. China's 2025 export controls added another layer, covered in our guide China Rare Earth Export Controls.

Where are rare earths separated outside China?

Only a few plants outside China separate rare earths at commercial scale, and several more are being built. Some examples:

• Lynas Rare Earths, Malaysia. The DOE says Lynas separates concentrate from its Mount Weld mine in Australia into neodymium and praseodymium oxides at its plant in Malaysia.
• Energy Fuels, Utah. The company announced in June 2024 that it had reached commercial production of separated NdPr at its White Mesa Mill, with a first-phase circuit sized for 850 to 1,000 tonnes of NdPr a year.
• Neo Performance Materials, Estonia. In April 2026 Neo said it had commissioned a small-scale heavy rare earth solvent extraction line at its Silmet plant.
• Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatoon. The Saskatchewan government says the facility is designed for monazite processing, AI-controlled rare earth separation and metal smelting, and expects it to be fully operational in early 2027.

MP Materials in California is the other major separator outside China; our guide What Is NdPr Oxide? covers its operations and its price floor with the US Department of Defense. Listed refiners appear on our rare earth stocks page.

What should you check in a company's processing plans?

A company's processing plan tells you how it will turn rock into revenue. It deserves as much attention as the deposit. Start with the end product: is the company planning to sell a concentrate, a mixed carbonate, separated oxides or metal? Each step further along means more value per tonne, and more cost and risk to get there.

Then check who will do the separating, and whether there's a signed agreement. Look for the recovery figures from metallurgical test work, and for how thorium and uranium will be handled if the ore contains monazite. Our guide How to Read a Rare Earth Resource Estimate covers the deposit side, and What Are Rare Earth Elements? covers the basics.

Sources

• US Department of Energy, Rare Earth Permanent Magnets: Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment (2022)
• International Energy Agency, With new export controls on critical minerals, supply concentration risks become reality (2025)
• Government of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Research Council and REalloys sign rare earth partnership agreements (December 8, 2025)
• Energy Fuels, commercial production of separated rare earths at the White Mesa Mill (June 10, 2024)
• Neo Performance Materials, heavy rare earth separation line commissioned in Europe (April 10, 2026)

Related guides

• What Is NdPr Oxide?The neodymium-praseodymium product that sets most rare earth project economics.
• China Rare Earth Export ControlsWhat China restricted in 2025, what it suspended, and what is still in force.
• Rare Earth RecyclingWhy so few rare earths are recycled today, how magnets are recovered, and how much recycling could supply.
• What Are Rare Earth Elements?Seventeen metals, most of them not rare at all. What they are and what they are used for.