Rare Earth Elements Sustainable Recovery and Extraction Prize

The Rare Earth Elements (REEs) Sustainable Recovery and Extraction Prize aims to accelerate the development of a novel, cost-effective, and environmentally sound technology for substitution and sustainable recovery of REEs. In turn, it will help to ease the transition to a net zero economy and prevent inflationary and geopolitical risks by offsetting some of the demand for REEs.

The problem 

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are a group of 17 elements that are critical for technologies such as smartphones, wind turbines, EV motors and aerospace defence. In Europe alone the demand for rare earths is expected to increase fivefold by 2030.

Extracting REEs from the earth causes environmental damage and a lot of waste, including low-level radioactive waste. Furthermore, extraction and processing is highly concentrated in a few geographical areas which creates risks of supply constraints and price volatility in case of geopolitical events or disruption to logistics. For example, China’s near-monopoly over rare earths raises concerns (it accounts for 60 per cent of global rare earth extraction and 87 percent of processing). In the past year alone prices of rare-earths rose by 50-90%.

There is an urgent need to encourage recycling and diversification of REE supplies, and reduce imports.

Why a challenge prize?

Shining a light on a critical challenge

Countries are under pressure to meet climate neutrality goals and preserve industrial competitiveness in the clean energy sector.

There is currently a mismatch between the world’s strengthened climate ambitions and the availability of critical minerals that are essential to realising those ambitions. The production of critical minerals of all kinds is expected to rise sharply, as much as 500% by 2040.

The UK is dependent on imports for critical minerals, which poses a significant security issue (in case of geopolitical events or disruptions to supply chains and logistics).

Stimulating needed innovation

There is a clear market opportunity – governments and private equity funds are willing to invest in ground-breaking technologies to help businesses and organisations comply with the net zero transition plans.

The prize would stimulate needed innovation by bringing experts from various sectors (scientific institutes and research centres, government agencies, earth scientists, SMEs and start-ups as well as large businesses) to join efforts on the development of new approaches to bring more REE deposits into production – by finding new ways to recycle REEs, research to find substitute materials, or recover REEs as coproducts of mineral deposits.

What could the Rare Earth Elements prize look like?

A prize would be awarded to the team that develops one of the following:

1. Recycling: a novel, low cost, and eco-friendly technology for the sustainable recycling of REEs from electronic waste (e.g. the development of a new protein-based environment-friendly process to extract and purify REEs from low-grade sources, which otherwise require toxic chemicals to process).
2. New methods of extraction: new methods of extractions (removal technology) from other sourceSelective and Efficient Biomacromolecular Extraction of Rare-Earth Elements using Lanmodulin | Inorganic Chemistrys that are currently not available or too expensive to implement/scale, e.g. extraction from unused mining tails, industrial wastewater etc.
3. Substitution: processes that substitute the use of rare earths, e.g. through the use of nanotechnologies, ‘material by design’(using multi-scale computational modelling techniques), or by combining different materials (e.g. nanotubes, polymers etc).

The prize would be split into two main phases:

• A two-year programme of technology development, testing and piloting, in which teams develop their minimum viable product and generate evidence that it is capable of trebling yields.
• Then a three-year window in which teams have a chance to prove market traction.
• The £10m prize pot would be split equally between these two phases, and would include both final prize money as well as up-front grant funding to support teams’ participation.

This prize idea is designed to be a conversation starter, so tell us what you think!

The best prize ideas are developed through extensive research and engagement with experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience of the problems they are focused on. We start with a first draft like the one above – then work to improve, refine and validate our thinking.

We’re particularly keen to have conversations about this idea with potential funders and organisations working in the field.

Get in touch if you’re interested – or if you think you have a better idea – and we’ll schedule a call.