Can Radioactive Monazite Ore Break China’s Rare Earth Monopoly?
Western nations are turning to radioactive monazite to challenge China's dominance in rare-earth supply chains.
1Global Rare-Earth Dominance
China currently controls approximately 90 percent of the global market for rare-earth oxides and metals. These elements are essential for semiconductors, lasers, and permanent magnets used in electric vehicle motors. Industrial powers now view this dependency as a critical geostrategic vulnerability, prompting a race to establish alternative, non-Chinese supply chains.
2The Monazite Strategic Shift
Experts like Jack Lifton identify monazite as the most vital ore for breaking the current market monopoly. Unlike bastnaesite, monazite contains high concentrations of neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. These specific elements are crucial for manufacturing high-performance magnets, which are the core components of modern military systems and electric vehicle motors.
3Radioactive Processing Challenges
Monazite contains thorium and uranium, making it mildly radioactive and subject to strict government regulations. Processing requires specialized facilities capable of handling hazardous waste, which must be stored in isolation indefinitely. These regulatory hurdles significantly increase operational costs and complexity compared to traditional mining methods used for non-radioactive mineral ores.
4Energy Fuels' Utah Operations
Energy Fuels, based in Colorado, is currently the only U.S. entity licensed to process monazite for rare earths. The company utilizes its White Mesa Mill in Utah, which already handles uranium. By leveraging existing infrastructure, they have begun producing mixed oxides and pilot-scale quantities of heavy rare earths like dysprosium.
5Capital Investment and Loans
Energy Fuels has invested over $200 million to secure monazite assets in Brazil and Madagascar. The company recently received a $725 million conditional loan commitment from the U.S. government to scale production. These funds are intended to help the company reach higher commercial levels and expand its rare-earth processing capabilities significantly.
6Cautionary Canadian Project Delays
The Saskatchewan Research Council’s project in Canada serves as a warning regarding the difficulty of scaling monazite processing. Despite expenditures exceeding $100 million, the facility has produced only minuscule quantities of rare earths. Original production targets for 2024 and 2025 were missed, with full operations now pushed back to late 2027.
7Advantages of Mineral Sands
Heavy mineral sands are a preferred source of monazite because they are already granular, eliminating the need for energy-intensive crushing. These sands are found in coastal areas of Australia, Brazil, and India. Dredging or strip-mining these deposits is significantly cheaper and less invasive than the blasting required for hard-rock mining operations.
8Regulatory Reform as Solution
Industry analysts argue that current nuclear regulations regarding thorium are the primary bottleneck for non-Chinese production. If governments rationalize these rules, rare-earth extraction could become a byproduct of existing mining operations. This shift would transform rare earths from scarce, high-risk commodities into common materials that naturally flow from other industrial mining activities.
9Waste-to-Resource Strategy
Monazite is often treated as waste by chemical companies like Chemours, which extract titanium and zirconium from mineral sands. Energy Fuels purchases this monazite byproduct, effectively turning industrial waste into a strategic resource. This symbiotic relationship allows companies to secure raw materials without the environmental impact of opening entirely new mines.
10Market Entry and Sales
In September 2025, Energy Fuels sold 1.2 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium oxide to South Korea’s POSCO International. This sale demonstrates the viability of their processing model for the electric vehicle supply chain. The company is also developing the capacity to produce dysprosium, a critical element currently sourced almost exclusively from Chinese suppliers.
11Expansion and Future Capacity
Energy Fuels is currently engineering a larger facility designed to produce up to 6,000 tonnes of rare-earth products annually. This expansion is essential for the company to transition from a niche processor to a world-class supplier. The long-term strategy relies on securing consistent monazite supply agreements from Australia, Brazil, and Madagascar.
12The Long-Term Outlook
Breaking China’s grip on rare earths remains a daunting task characterized by instability and high risk. While monazite offers a promising path forward, success depends on navigating radioactive waste liabilities and meeting aggressive production timelines. The outcome will determine which nations can maintain competitiveness in the high-tech industries of the future.
Original article: IEEE Spectrum — Can Radioactive Monazite Ore Break China’s Rare Earth Monopoly?