Episode summary
This Is How The US Can Become a Player in Rare Earth Metals | Odd Lots
Odd Lots
· · 45 min · Hosts: Tracy Alloway, Joe Weisenthal · Guests: Heidi Crebo-Rediker
Summary
Heidi Crebo-Rediker argues that U.S. dependence on China for rare earths and the magnets built from them has become a genuine national emergency, because China controls not just mining but also refining, technology, and parts of the demand chain. She says the United States cannot realistically outmine or outspend China at scale, so the more promising path is to use innovation to leapfrog the current supply chain bottleneck.
Her report focuses on technologies already emerging from national labs, universities, and startup ecosystems: rare-earth-free magnet materials, protein-based extraction systems, biotech approaches to tailings and waste, and recycling of e-waste, coal ash, and mine waste. She points to examples such as Niron Magnetics, Arcanum Research Technology, and Vulcan, and argues that waste should be treated as “America’s next mine.”
Crebo-Rediker says the policy answer has to combine government support, data collection, and early-stage capital, especially to bridge the “valley of death” for hard-tech companies. She also stresses that offtake agreements from industrial buyers and military customers are essential, and she compares the moment to World War Two-era synthetic rubber mobilization, when the U.S. used industrial policy to replace a critical imported input.
Key takeaways
- Crebo-Rediker says the U.S. cannot beat China in rare earths by simply trying to mine and process more at scale.
- She argues that national labs, universities, and biotech-driven startups can help the U.S. leapfrog China’s chokehold on magnets and critical minerals.
- The report identifies waste streams including e-waste, coal ash, and mine tailings as underused domestic sources of rare earths.
- Crebo-Rediker says early-stage government-backed capital, including In-Q-Tel-style structures, is needed to fund hard-tech companies through the valley of death.
- She says collective offtake agreements from automakers, aerospace firms, and the military are key to making new supply chains bankable.
Notable quotes
“So I think we actually do have a national emergency”
“the thing is, we can't actually out mine out process and outspend China”
“So there's a material design approach to this that either drastically reduces how much rare earths you actually need in magnets”
“It's literally America's next mine”
“we actually were able to, provide for, you know, for, for trucks and tanks and everything that rubber goes into that we had never even thought about”
How the episode opens
So I think we actually do have a national emergency. And certainly, you know, policymakers and companies understand that when China shut off access. And so, you know, that was the moment.
I think that was the moment where it really hit that that not only overreliance, but an up to 100% reliance that's like that. I mean, the Chinese cut off access to the technology that they had developed for refining, for extracting. They actually, when we had that one year pause, one of the things that, that the Council on Foreign Relations partner, Silverado, Policy Accelerator, they had done a lot of work on what the, what China was actually exporting after, after that October lifting of the, of the, export controls there, exporting, magnets.
But they're not exporting those rare earths or the technology that we need to actually, produce the same for ourselves. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal and I'm Tracy Alloway.
Tracy, you know, we do this episode on various areas of technology in which China is perceived to be ahead of the US. And they're very interesting and I learn a lot. It's not obvious to me like what lessons there are or anything.
Some of there's some of these things it's like we're really far behind. I don't think we're ever going to catch up. This is very interesting and academic.
But what exactly is the point of talking about all this? I don't know if there's anything to do with this information. You know, what I thought you were going to say is that we are sometimes accused of identifying strategic choke points or areas of difficulty on the podcast, and then coming up with absolutely no solutions for how to fix them.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- rare earth metals
- china market dominance
- supply chain risk
- industrial policy
- u.s. competitiveness
Watch the episode
Watch “This Is How The US Can Become a Player in Rare Earth Metals | Odd Lots” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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