Latest news with #rareEarthElements
Bloomberg
6 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump Says China ‘Not Easy' as Trade Talks to Resume Tuesday
Supply Lines is a daily newsletter that tracks global trade. Sign up here. Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements.
Bloomberg
6 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
US and China Focus Trade Talks on Rare Earth Materials
Trade talks between the US and China will continue into a second day, according to a US official, as the two sides look to ease tensions over shipments of technology and rare earth elements. Representatives for both nations ended their first day of negotiations in London after more than six hours at Lancaster House, a 19th century mansion near Buckingham Palace. Gracelin Baskaran, Director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discusses the importance of rare earth materials to American defense and economic initiatives. Dr. Baskaran speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily. (Source: Bloomberg)
National Post
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- National Post
Cyclic Materials and Lime Announce Pioneering Partnership to Recycle Electric Motors from North American Micromobility Fleet
Article content Article content TORONTO — Cyclic Materials ('Cyclic'), a pioneer in the circular supply of rare-earth elements (REEs), and Lime, the world's largest provider of shared micromobility electric vehicles, announce a strategic agreement to recycle magnets from retired electric motors powering e-bikes and e-scooters across Canada and the United States. The agreement marks the first at-scale recycling initiative focused on rare earth magnets in North America in the micromobility sector. Article content 'Cyclic is excited to partner with Lime, a company demonstrating what true circularity looks like in action,' said Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and Co-Founder of Cyclic Materials. ' This partnership sets a powerful precedent for how innovative companies can close critical loops in the clean energy supply chain through the recycling of the permanent magnets that power modern mobility. We are proud to support Lime's bold net-zero and sustainability goals, while helping build a future where materials are recycled and reused, sustaining a more resilient supply of rare earth elements across the industry.' Article content Under the new partnership, Cyclic will recover rare-earth materials from decommissioned motors from vehicles in Lime's U.S. and Canadian markets. The agreement will be serviced primarily through Cyclic's recently announced Mesa, Arizona facility as well as its Kingston, Ontario location, bringing scalable and sustainable rare-earth recycling to one of the fastest-growing clean transportation segments. Article content Today, less than 1% of rare earth magnets are recycled globally, leaving an 'above-ground mine' of over 43,000 metric tonnes of end-of-life NdFeB magnets expected in the U.S. alone by 2035, according to Adamas Intelligence. 1 Article content Together, Cyclic and Lime are addressing this challenge by leveraging Cyclic Materials' MagCycle℠ and REEPure℠ technologies to recover rare earth magnets from end-of-life vehicles. This collaboration unlocks a critical, untapped resource and establishes a new benchmark for circularity in clean mobility. This partnership builds on Cyclic's rapid growth momentum and strengthens both companies' leadership in advancing circular solutions for the clean energy transition. Article content 'Circularity is a core part of our sustainability mission. Partnering with Cyclic Materials helps us take a meaningful step towards enhancing the recovery of already-processed materials and placing them for reuse back into the supply chain,' said Andrew Savage, VP of Sustainability at Lime. 'Through Cyclic's innovative approach, we are able to give new life to critical materials from decommissioned electric motors, increasing the recovery of these materials through the end-of-life process and, hopefully, supporting such practices to scale across electric mobility and beyond.' Article content With a fleet of more than 270,000 EVs and hundreds of millions of rides taken globally, Lime is a global leader in sustainable urban transportation and critical transportation in cities across North America and the world. Lime has achieved a -59.5% reduction in CO 2 emissions since 2019 in its path to net-zero by 2030 and expects to share 2024 results in the coming months. Article content Cyclic and Lime plan to begin operations in the coming weeks, with initial shipments already planned while activities are expected to ramp up throughout 2025. Article content 1 Adamas Intelligence for Cyclic Materials – Outlook for End-of-Life NdFeB Magnets to 2035. Article content About Lime Lime's mission is to build a future where transportation is shared, affordable, and carbon-free. As the world's largest provider of shared electric vehicles, Lime partners with cities to deploy electric bikes and scooters to serve any trip under five miles. A past TIME Magazine 100 Most Influential Company and Fast Company Brand That Matters, Lime has powered hundreds of millions of rides across 30 countries and five continents, spurring a new generation of clean alternatives to car ownership. Learn more at Article content About Cyclic Materials Cyclic Materials, founded in 2021, is a cleantech company building a circular supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials essential to the clean energy transition. Its innovative technology transforms end-of-life products into valuable raw materials used in EVs, wind turbines, and electronics. In 2023, the company launched a commercial demo facility using its Mag-Cycle℠ process to recover rare earth magnets. In 2024, it opened a second facility in Kingston, Ontario, producing Mixed Rare Earth Oxide via its REEPure℠ hydrometallurgical process. With demand for REE-based magnets surging, Cyclic Materials is scaling globally across North America, Europe, and Asia. Mesa, Arizona, is its first U.S. location. In recognition of its pioneering work, it was named the #8 Most Innovative company in North America by Fast Company in 2025. Learn more at Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Media Contacts Emily Peykar (Lime) Global PR Lead Article content Article content Article content
Fast Company
06-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Why this startup is mining seaweed to power EVs
On farms off the coast of Alaska and in Mexico, a company called Blue Evolution grows seaweed used in food and skincare products. But five years ago, while studying the potential for seaweed to be used in bioenergy, the company discovered something else: The algae also contains critical minerals. The research, conducted with Pacific Northwest National Labs, identified the presence of scandium, an expensive rare earth element that's produced in tiny volumes globally. The seaweed also contains other rare earth elements and platinum group metals that can be used to make products ranging from EV batteries to motors for wind turbines. 'That generated a lot of excitement,' says Beau Perry, CEO of Blue Evolution. 'Everyone was like, 'Can you mine with seaweed?'' The company undertook more research into the area, and today it launched a new initiative, Orca Minerals, that's focused on the new form of mining. Instead of blasting rocks or the seabed, the process makes use of the fact that seaweed naturally absorbs minerals from seawater as it grows. At its lab in San Jose, the company is analyzing samples of seaweed that it grows in seawater tanks on the Mexican coast and in the ocean in Alaska. With the right location, and the right strain of seaweed, Perry says, it's possible to harvest meaningful amounts of certain minerals. The team identifies and selectively breeds seaweed strains, and is currently analyzing one of those proprietary strains. 'We're starting to select the characteristics that should yield more, with faster growth, but also more solid content and more mineral content,' Perry says. The content of critical minerals like cobalt or palladium is small, but that's also true in traditional mining. 'When you're mining rare earths, it's just mostly wasted material. You need a huge amount of rock,' he says. 'Rare earth elements are not that much more concentrated in those deposits than in some of the seaweed samples we've seen.' Some other startups are working on processes to extract minerals from land using plants, like a company called Metalplant that's mining nickel with crops grown in Albania. Seaweed has some advantages: It grows much more quickly and can concentrate minerals at a higher proportion, so the yield can be greater. And while there's a fixed stock of minerals in soil, currents in the ocean continually replenish supply. The rest of the seaweed also has value—as nutrients, pigments, or carbon that can be used to make seaweed-based textiles, plastic, and other materials; critical minerals are a side benefit. As the biomaterials market grows, that would simultaneously mean more potential to displace traditional mining on land. If the company grows seven-figure tons of dry seaweed in Alaska to meet demand for biomaterials, for example, Perry says it could also produce enough scandium to be a major player in the global market. (For some other minerals and elements that are produced at bigger scales, it would contribute a much smaller percentage.) Mining from seaweed, rather than rocks, could help avoid some of the environmental impact of getting components that are necessary in things like electronics and EV batteries. Traditional mining destroys wildlife habitats; pollutes water, soil, and the air; uses large amounts of energy; and creates piles of waste. The Trump administration also wants to fast-track deep-sea mining—extracting minerals from the ocean floor—something scientists say could cause irreparable harm to marine ecosystems. Growing and harvesting seaweed doesn't cause those problems. Refining minerals from seaweed also takes less energy and is a cleaner process than traditional refining, Perry says. The company is working on its own green-chemistry-based extraction techniques that could potentially bypass the need to use a secondary refinery. The work is still in progress, and the company wants to ensure it can predictably harvest a certain volume of critical minerals from its seaweed. But it expects to have an operational prototype by 2027. Commercial production could begin in 2028.
