[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] U.S. startup Radify Metals is taking aim at a China-centred rare earth supply chain with plasma-based metal refining technology. The key is to innovate the refining step that removes oxygen from rare earths in oxide form and converts them into pure metal.

TechCrunch reported on April 9 that Radify is developing plasma reactors for neodymium and dysprosium. Rare earths have a small market, but are essential for magnets, motors and electronic devices, and have high geopolitical importance. The United States is pushing to reopen mines and expand manufacturing, but refining processes still heavily depend on China.

Radify is focusing on what it sees as a missing intermediate step. Conventional metal refining removes oxygen using heat or chemical processes, but carries a high pollution burden. The plasma method separates oxygen using superheated hydrogen, with water vapour as the only byproduct.

The process is relatively simple. Hydrogen is turned into plasma inside a reactor and metal oxide powder is fed in, triggering a reduction reaction, with pure metal discharged on the other side. The same equipment can be used by changing operating conditions depending on the metal, giving it flexibility. The company said it lowered the high cost problem of existing plasma processes by improving power electronics efficiency and powder handling technology.

The technology is also suited to smaller equipment. Radify believes that moving away from large factory-centred structures and producing with smaller reactors would cut costs and increase flexibility to respond to metal price swings. It said that, for example, if the price of a specific rare earth plunges, production can quickly switch to other metals such as titanium or zirconium.

Radify is developing the technology with a small team at a laboratory in Campbell, California, and is targeting production of several kilograms of pure metal per day by year-end. It then plans to push ahead with building a pilot facility with capacity of up to 100 kg per day. It has raised close to $3 million in investment from Overture, Founders and Mana Ventures, among others.

Commercial viability depends on how much it can narrow the gap with Chinese prices. Rare earth prices outside China are currently several times higher than in China. Radify expects it will initially be able to produce at prices about 50 percent higher than China, but is aiming over the long term to reduce them to parity or below.

The company plans to expand applications beyond rare earths to hafnium, scandium and titanium. It is not yet efficient enough to replace existing processes in high-volume metals markets such as iron or aluminium. The industry is watching whether the technology can maintain performance at pilot scale and potentially change China-centred rare earth refining structures.