The global focus on the rare earths industry continues to grow. China’s recent export restrictions on US firms MP Materials (NYSE:MP) and USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ:USAR) highlight the push to diversify critical mineral supply chains and expand downstream processing, magnet manufacturing, separation, and other capabilities outside of China.
Rare earth elements (REEs) underpin a wide range of strategic technologies across energy, transportation, AI, aerospace, medical, and defence sectors, yet their supply chains remain among the most concentrated and vulnerable globally.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), economically viable deposits are uncommon. Because REEs are seldom found in their pure form, their complex chemical composition makes separation and processing both technically demanding and capital intensive.
Permanent magnets account for around 95% of rare earth consumption by value, reflecting their strategic role in electric vehicles, wind turbines, industrial motors, and AI data centre infrastructure.
Demand for the key magnet elements — neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — has surged since 2015 and is forecast to accelerate further through 2030 as electrification and advanced manufacturing grow in scale. That said, the value chain remains constrained, with limited non-Chinese capacity across mining, separation, metal-making, and magnet production, intensifying global efforts to build secure alternative supply.
REE pricing is often split geographically, with global buyers paying premiums to Chinese domestic prices. Rare earth prices are currently seeing upward pressure, driven by the global growth in demand and supply tightness.
According to Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), the June 2026 spot price for neodymium metal from China stands at US$121.95 ($176.33) per kilogram, while neodymium metal (FOB China — meaning export-grade material at the Chinese port) was US$155/kg.
Neodymium-praseodymium alloys were priced at US$109.55/kg in the domestic market, while praseodymium metal was US$124.88/kg. The FOB export price for praseodymium was US$160/kg.
Dalaroo flags strategic REE potential at Blue Lagoon
Dalaroo Metals (ASX:DAL) is an Australian mineral exploration company with a focus on REEs in Greenland and gold in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. The company’s wholly owned Blue Lagoon Critical Minerals Project in southwest Greenland is located within a globally-recognised REE and critical minerals district, the Gardar Alkaline Province.
Dalaroo completed its maiden modern field program at Blue Lagoon in 2025, including the collection of 113 surface samples across stream sediments, lagoon margin sediments, and surficial materials. Every sample returned anomalous rare earth mineralisation.
Key results from the field program include a coherent mineralised trend extending around 2.7km, peak total rare earth oxide (TREO) values of around 0.81%, zirconium values of up to 4.42% zirconium dioxide, and hafnium values up to 99 parts per million (ppm).
CEO John Morgan says that the critical mineral hafnium results are encouraging “given hafnium’s strategic importance in aerospace, semiconductor, nuclear, and advanced technology applications”.
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Looking at the REE industry overall, Morgan notes that the long-term fundamentals are incredibly compelling, with growing focus on the magnet rare earths in particular, which are essential in permanent magnet technologies.
“China’s continued dominance of the industry creates a strategic vulnerability for Western economies,” Morgan says, highlighting the need for new ex-China supply.
That supply vulnerability is prompting governments and industries to place an increased focus on supply security over lowest-cost supply, according to Morgan.
“That structural trend is likely to support investment into new projects and alternative supply chains over the coming decade,” Morgan says.
“Unlike lithium, where markets are currently working through oversupply concerns, rare earths are benefiting from a growing geopolitical narrative around supply diversification and critical minerals security.
“As a result, quality rare earth projects with strategic mineral exposure are attracting increasing attention from both institutional and strategic investors.”
Dalaroo is advancing Blue Lagoon as a strategic part of an emerging Western-aligned critical minerals supply chain. Its location in Greenland offers unique advantages including geopolitical alignment with Western economies, significant mineralogical potential, and access to future processing and manufacturing hubs. It also provides links to governments and manufacturers seeking to expand strategic supply chains.
“If Blue Lagoon continues to demonstrate scale and favourable metallurgy, we believe it could ultimately contribute feedstock into European and North American critical mineral supply chains, supporting broader diversification efforts and improving supply security for strategically important industries.”
Dalaroo is focused on rapidly improving the company’s geological understanding of the project and assessing potential economic pathways. Key near-term milestones include the commencement of the 2026 field season, ground penetrating radar surveys across key areas, bathymetric surveying to better understand sediment accumulation, auger drilling, and sediment sampling.
“The objective is to move beyond simply demonstrating mineralisation and begin understanding scale, continuity, mineral hosts, and potential processing characteristics,” Morgan says.
“We believe this next phase will be critical in unlocking the broader value potential of the project.”
Splinter Rock’s high-purity MREC strengthens OD6’s pathway
OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6) is a multi-commodity critical minerals company, with the Quinn Fluorspar Project in the US, Splinter Rock Rare Earth in Western Australia, and Gulf Creek Copper in New South Wales.
Splinter Rock hosts a JORC resource of 682 million tonnes (Mt) at 1,338ppm TREO, with a ‘high-grade’ inside centre of 119Mt at 1,632ppm TREO indicated.
The project also has a ‘high-quality’ mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) of around 56% TREO and a ‘high-quality’ mixed rare earth hydroxide (MREH) of around 59% TREO.
OD6 has proven strong metallurgical results, with overall recovery of neodymium and praseodymium at around 75%, inclusive of impurity removal, with the company noting that the product quality meets or exceeds global benchmarks for MREC and MREH.
The company has already determined a simplified processing pathway for its Splinter Rock product, using a simple acidic heap leach to produce a ‘high-quality’, low impurity product.
In January 2026, OD6 Metals joined industry leaders to support Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve that was advanced by the Association of Mining Exploration Companies. The group was focused on providing greater market certainty for rare earth and critical minerals producers, strengthening supply chain resilience, and supporting long-term offtake pathways.
ABx Group builds Western REE supply with Deep Leads growth
ABx Group (ASX:ABX) is focused on being a key supplier of both light and heavy rare earths for Western supply chains, driven by the Deep Leads Rare Earths Project in Tasmania.
The company announced an upgraded resource of 89Mt in 2024, with the resource base on just 29% of the identified mineralised outline at Deep Leads. ABx then followed that with the Temple Bar discovery in May 2025, just 50km east of Deep Leads.
ABx notes that Deep Leads is one of few clay-hosted resources with a significant ionic (non-acid) proportion, meaning its rare earths can be extracted and processed in a much more cost-effective and timely way.
Avoiding the use of acid significantly lowers the company’s operating costs through reduced reagent consumption, simpler impurity removal requirements, and fewer rare earth losses.
ABx has had significant news flow over the past few months. The company secured a new exploration tenement in Tasmania just north of Deep Leads, as previously reported. This exploration tenement expands the company’s portfolio of prospective ionic adsorption clay rare earth element mineralisation to over 800km2.
ABx was also one of five projects to receive funding from the Exploration Drilling Grant Initiative, initiated by the Tasmanian Government, to offset direct drilling costs.
Significantly, ABx recently received confirmation from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) that its MREC from Deep Leads is exempt from radiological control. This means that lower radioactivity levels reduce regulatory compliance requirements for the project’s MREC. It also provides greater market access for ABx.
ABx is planning its next exploration campaign in Tasmania in August 2026, incorporating AI tools to enhance target generation and exploration work. The company is also focused on advancing its commercialisation activities, distributing samples of MREC, engaging with potential offtake and other partners, economic studies, and additional exploration work.
In addition to its rare earths focus, ABx is focused on delivering materials for a safer, cleaner future, with clean fluorine chemical production and near-term bauxite production.
Ark Mines‘ Q2 breakthrough: Sandy Mitchell delivers commercial monazite with titanium upside
Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) is fast-tracking Australian rare earth production with the Sandy Mitchell Rare Earths Project in North Queensland, one of the world’s largest, surface-expressed, sand-based placer rare earth deposits.
Sandy Mitchell hosts a mineral resource estimate of 71.8Mt @ 1,732.7ppm monazite equivalent, and recent drilling is now targeting 330Mt.
The company sees significant exploration upside for the project, with the current exploration target estimate of 1.3 to 1.5 billion tonnes @ 1,316ppm to 1,580ppm monazite equivalent.
Ark says that the rare earth deposits at Sandy Mitchell sit within a large sand pit and that “Mother Nature has done the crushing and grinding”, meaning the company can use simple extraction via gravity processing.
The company is on the fast-track to development, aided by a recent $4.5 million investment from the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC). The investment forms part of the QIC’s $170 million Queensland Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund, supporting select Queensland-based resources companies with a goal of strengthening domestic critical minerals supply chains.
Ark is working toward a comprehensive Prefeasibility Study, due in Q2 2026, and has multiple offtake discussions underway with potential partners.
The company recently hit a milestone, generating a commercial monazite production sample from its heavy minerals concentrate at Sandy Mitchell. The sample was sourced from a bulk retained fraction of its resource drilling campaign.
The monazite product graded 54.8% TREO and 1.49% yttrium oxide in the highest-grade stream. The proportion of neodymium praseodymium oxide was graded 23.4%, with a strong titanium upside demonstrated at 73.5% titanium dioxide.
Managing Director Ben Emery notes that the product results were a critical step forward for the project.
“This study bridges the gap between recognising the commercial potential of the project and demonstrating the potential through the successful production of commercial grade monazite and titanium products,” Emery says.
“Whilst there is still further metallurgical testwork to be completed, these results provide a level of confidence in the quality of the resource, as we look to define the most efficient processing pathway to commercial production.”
Ark Mines is a critical minerals and rare earths exploration and development company with assets in North Queensland.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au, Dalaroo Metals, OD6 Metals, ABx Group, Ark Mines
