MOUNTAIN PASS, CALIFORNIA — MP Materials has achieved the ability to refine neodymium and praseodymium to 99.9% purity at its Mountain Pass rare earth facility in California. The company mines rare earth elements, processes them, and manufactures magnets at the site.

Mountain Pass mine is the only active rare earth mine in the United States. MP Materials invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop its refining capability, according to the company.

"This is the refined product. This is the money room," said James Litinsky, CEO of MP Materials. The Mountain Pass mine employs more than 700 people.

Rare earth elements are key components in smartphones, robotics, electric vehicles, fighter jets, drones, and radar systems. One F-35 fighter jet contains about a hundred pounds of rare earth elements, according to military sources. China holds a near-monopoly over rare earth elements.

Litinsky and Michael Rosenthal founded MP Materials in 2017 to operate the Mountain Pass mine after Molycorp filed for bankruptcy in 2015. The two worked in finance before acquiring the mine and have no background in geology. When they took over in 2017, the mine employed eight people and contained 30 million gallons of pooled water at the bottom of the pit.

MP Materials revived the mine by blasting earth, crushing rocks into gravel, and milling it into fine powder. Each bag of refined rare earth products at MP Materials is worth around $120,000.

China became the world's dominant producer of rare earth elements by offering cheaper mining and processing costs. China weaponizes its dominance in rare earth elements by dumping quantities of a mineral onto the market to drive prices down when competitors begin mining or refining it. The United States does not have secure supply chains for rare earth elements because China controls the market.

Mountain Pass was the world's primary rare earth mine for decades. Geologists discovered rare earth elements at Mountain Pass in 1949. In the 1990s, Mountain Pass mine experienced economic decline and faced environmental regulatory actions after radioactive water leaked into the surrounding desert. The mine was inactive for about a decade before Molycorp tried to restart operations.

"If you have a cellphone, have a laptop, if you drive a car then you're touching rare earth minerals and rare earth magnets," said Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior. "It's essential to everyday life, but it's also essential to aerospace, telecom, defense systems."