Rare Earth minerals deposit could end Chinese dominance

A major mining project championed by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and rapidly advanced under President Donald Trump is now positioned to significantly undermine China’s long-held dominance in nanotechnology, clean energy manufacturing and the electric vehicle industry. The GraphiteOne development near Nome has uncovered enormous graphite reserves — a resource for which China had previously supplied roughly 90% of the world’s output.

By 2024, the United States depended on imports for at least 93% of both graphite and rare earth elements, according to data from the International Energy Agency. The Graphite Creek deposit had already been recognized as the largest known graphite source in the country, but an announcement this week revealed the presence of rare earth elements alongside the graphite. According to a source familiar with the project, the discovery represents a major escalation in America’s ability to compete with the Chinese Communist Party as Trump pushes forward his “American energy dominance” platform.

Rare earth elements remain essential for many technologies — including batteries, renewable power systems, advanced optics, LED lighting, magnets, and everyday devices such as smartphones and tablets. Their importance has become even more apparent since China placed new restrictions on magnet-related REE exports in 2024, highlighting America’s vulnerability in high-tech manufacturing.

GraphiteOne’s president, Anthony Huston, called the new findings in Nome confirmation of a “truly generational deposit” at the site. Materials extracted there will be sent to an advanced processing and battery-anode production facility in Ohio. Huston said the project now contains two materials that qualify for priority treatment under the Defense Production Act. He added that because the company is planning a comprehensive graphite supply chain with strong economic potential, recovering rare earth elements as a by-product could dramatically increase the value of their operations.

The specific rare earth elements detected include neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. The ore rock also contains garnet minerals, which the project’s lead geologist noted can absorb certain rare earth elements within their crystal structure.

Gov. Dunleavy, during his State of the State address earlier this year, celebrated GraphiteOne as North America’s largest project of its kind and urged continued support at both the state level and in Washington. Huston praised the governor for recognizing Alaska’s strategic role in supplying the metals and minerals that will define the technological landscape of the 21st century, while also reducing America’s reliance on foreign suppliers — particularly those considered adversarial or unreliable.

Beyond Alaska, rare earth elements have also been identified in Pennsylvania. Former Congressman Lou Barletta tried to draw federal attention to those resources during the 2010s. The anthracite coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania have been found to contain up to 17 different rare earth elements, presenting another potential opportunity to weaken China’s global monopoly.

Barletta said in 2018 that funds had been secured for a pilot program exploring whether rare earth elements could be extracted from wastewater produced by coal mining. The region, stretching from towns like Shamokin to Audenried in Carbon County, is dotted with abandoned mines that could serve as potential extraction sites. While Pennsylvania has made far less progress in developing a rare-earth industry than Alaska has in recent years, researchers at Penn State announced in September that they had created new methods for recovering cobalt, manganese and nickel from acid mine drainage and fly ash — signaling that the state’s legacy coal regions may still hold significant technological value for the future.

Source: FOX NEWS