Salty Solutions: Tapping Geothermal Brines for Rare Earth Elements

Payne Institute Student Researcher Emma Jones Fredrickson and Payne Institute Low Carbon Energy Technologies Program Manager Anna Littlefield write about how as ever changing policies strain trade relationships between the U.S. and China, rare earth elements (REEs) provide China with leverage in negotiations, adding renewed urgency to seek alternative, domestic sources of these high-value materials.  REE mining is accompanied by environmental contamination risks and potential impacts to human health, necessitating new solutions for sustainable mining practices.  August 5, 2025.