Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials HomeMiningNewsRare earth talent scramble lures 86-year-old from retirementMuch of the mining industry's know-how has migrated to China, now the world’s primary employer of specialistsAuthor of the article:Last updated 5 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Jack Lifton, 86, a rare earth consultant, poses for a portrait outside his home in Farmington Hills, MI on June 19, 2026. Photo by Rosem Morton/BloombergJack Lifton first retired from the mining industry more than a quarter century ago. These days, at 86, he’s busier than ever.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorThe engineer-turned-consultant is one of the few Americans with experience processing rare earth elements, a business the United States once led before it was outsourced to China. Over the past year, amid escalating trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, the Trump administration has poured billions of dollars into rebuilding domestic supply chains. That’s made Lifton a coveted repository of knowledge for mining firms racing to build plants capable of refining the niche metals essential for consumer electronics, electric vehicles and military-grade weapons.Rare earth plants are complicated and expensive to build, especially in the U.S. where permitting timelines are far longer than mining-friendly countries in Asia and South America. But perhaps the biggest challenge is finding talent to run the facilities. Even if Western companies secure enough raw materials to reduce reliance on China — which dominates every stage of the supply chain, from mining to magnets — chemical engineers and metallurgists experienced in rare earths have nearly gone extinct in America.SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE: FP West: Energy Insider brings you behind the oilpatch’s closed doors with exclusive insights from insiders every Wednesday morning.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of FP West: Energy Insider will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again“When companies ask me where to find them, I say, ‘Start with the cemeteries, then check assisted care,’” said Lifton, whose clients include Energy Fuels Inc., one of the U.S.’s most ambitious rare earth firms. “Anyone in the U.S. with experience is either dead or, like me, very old.”The work is extraordinarily specialized. Lifton, who lives in Michigan, advises miners on complex metallurgy: how to isolate soft, silvery rare earths used in high-performance magnets, and where to source the technology needed to prepare them at commercial scale. Unlike commodities such as gold or copper, rare earths require an intricate refining process the U.S. has scarcely performed in decades. Separating the 17 elements can involve dozens of extraction stages and expertise taught at only a handful of universities or acquired through years in industry. Much of that know-how has migrated to China, now the world’s primary employer of specialists.Some U.S. companies are partnering with universities to recruit students in engineering, metallurgy and chemistry. Others are poaching employees from rivals. At one company in France, a key team of engineers are in their 80s and, like Lifton, have been lured from retirement to help troubleshoot mineral processing plants.The race for talent spilled into court in May, when MP Materials Corp., owner of the U.S.’s only operating rare earth mine, sued USA Rare Earth Inc., accusing the rival of orchestrating a hiring raid by recruiting a senior engineer and seven other employees along with proprietary information related to rare earth processing and magnet manufacturing. Ramaco Resources Inc., another aspiring U.S. producer, separately sued a former employee now working at USA Rare Earth, alleging he shared Ramaco’s proprietary research with USA Rare Earth.This kind of competition has made companies especially protective of their engineers. “We know some of our guys have been approached about jobs,” said Ross Bhappu, the chief executive of Energy Fuels, which relies on workers with a background in uranium processing to help expand its rare earth facility in Utah. “It’s a scary proposition. There are just not a lot of people who study rare earth chemistry.”The U.S. produces about one-fifteenth as many mining graduates as China, a figure that has declined sharply over the past decade to roughly 285 last year. Today, the country has only about a dozen accredited mining schools, less than half as many as in the early 1980s. And more than half of America’s mining workforce — about 221,000 people — is expected to retire by 2029.The federal government is trying to rebuild the pipeline. The Department of Energy is funding workforce-development programs through Ames National Laboratory’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub. Universities including Virginia Tech and the University of Wyoming also have initiatives to train mining engineers, metallurgists and rare earth specialists. Neil Hogan works at an Aclara Resources rare earth separation pilot plant in Blacksburg, Virginia. Photographer: Mike Kropf/BloombergAt the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources, just over two dozen students at the university currently specialize in rare earths, according to executive director Scott Quillinan. While interest in the sector is growing, most engineering graduates still gravitate toward oil and gas or industrial chemicals, where pay and career prospects are stronger, he said. Entry-level petroleum engineers earned an average of US$104,051 in 2025, according to the National Association of Colleges & Employers, compared with US$79,823 for mining engineers.“Copper and gold are profitable, whereas industries for rare earths are not ready to make the amount of money that would bring in these other specialists,” Quillinan said. “So there’s an economic hurdle we have to overcome.”Even finding instructors is challenging. “The teachers aren’t there to teach these skills, so we’re teaching the teachers,” he added. “It’s been difficult.”One of the few recent graduates to venture into mining is Neil Hogan, a 24-year-old chemical engineer who graduated from Pennsylvania State University this year. Hogan was the only person in his class to enter the rare earth industry, recently joining Aclara Resources Inc. to help the Brazilian company develop a processing plant in Louisiana, which will produce refined forms of terbium and dysprosium.For Hogan, the appeal wasn’t financial; he wanted to help rebuild a Western rare earth supply chain, and contribute to an industry still taking shape. “I hardly knew how to pronounce half of the minerals when I started,” he said. “But I always wanted to work somewhere that was more like a startup.”Closing the gap with China will likely take years. Over decades, Beijing built infrastructure the U.S. allowed to disappear: universities training specialists in rare earths, research institutes developing new processing techniques, and engineers moving between separation plants and magnet factories, building expertise across the entire supply chain.Ramon Barua, Aclara’s chief executive, said the shortage of experienced workers has forced the company to rely heavily on recent graduates with no prior experience in rare earths.“Does this guarantee that it will work on day one? Not necessarily,” he said. “But we have to work with the best tools we have at this point.”Other firms are recruiting from the opposite end of the career ladder. French consulting and technology company Carester SAS leans on veteran specialists, some of them octogenarians, to design separation facilities and advise clients. Earlier this year, USA Rare Earth acquired a 12.5 per cent stake in the company, gaining access not just to its technology but to some of the industry’s scarcest expertise.Few people understand what’s been lost better than Lifton. He started his career in the 1960s as a chemical engineer in Michigan, separating europium for America’s first generation of colour televisions. By the time he retired in 1999, much of the country’s rare earth industry had disappeared entirely.“We’re looking at years and years of development problems for these companies,” said Lifton. “They all say, ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’ll be in production next quarter.’ But that’s not happening without the talent.”—With assistance from Nectar Gan. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.