Tech

A cleaner path to rare earth metals

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Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 20/10/2026, 21:35:25 UTC.

Briefings

Tomás Villalón Jr. cofounded Phoenix Tailings in 2019 to extract rare earth metals from mining waste, aiming to eliminate pollution. The company claims its proprietary electrochemical process is carbon-free when fueled by renewables and generates no toxins. Villalón, a materials science graduate, previously worked at Boston Metal, an MIT spinoff focused on decarbonizing steelmaking.

Key points

• Tomás Villalón Jr. cofounded Phoenix Tailings in 2019 to extract rare earth metals from mining waste.
• The company claims its proprietary electrochemical process is carbon-free when fueled by renewables.

Context

Villalón, who majored in materials science and engineering, started thinking about sustainable metallurgy senior year while working at Boston Metal, an MIT spinoff focused on decarbonizing steelmaking.

Limitations

Evidence covers only Villalón's background, founding of Phoenix Tailings, and company claims. No data on production scale, environmental impact metrics, or specific dates of pollution reduction is provided.

Generated by Bittrees-hosted qwen35-2b sha256:aaf42c8b7c3c on 20/10/2026, 21:36:56 UTC. Based on publisher-provided feed evidence; may not cover the full original article. Check the source for details.

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