“You can dream all day long about scaling [weapons production but] if you don't have germanium, gallium, and rare earths, it is a pipe dream,” said Michael Cadenazzi, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy.

Phoenix Tailings secured a $500 million Pentagon loan to build a rare-earth processing plant, part of a nearly $1 billion push to reduce US dependence on

The US Department of Defense committed a conditional $500M loan to Phoenix Tailings for a new rare earth processing plant, targeting $1B in total funding.