“The mining is really the easiest part,” says Michael Rosenthal, who manages operations at Mountain Pass. The hard part is separating the rare earth metals from the rock and from one another. At MP’s facility in California, rare earths such as neodymium and praseodymium are separated and refined to 99.9% purity. Then, MP Materials sends much of the refined material to its magnet factory in Texas and makes them into something known as permanent magnets, which will eventually end up in everything from smartphones and robotics to cars and drones. The entire supply chain is made in the U.S.A. By the end of the year, this factory will be making millions of magnets destined for GM cars and - starting next year - Apple products too. #rareearthmetals #supplychain #nationalsecurity