--- title: A cleaner path to rare earth metals | daily.dev description: Tomás Villalón Jr. cofounded Phoenix Tailings in 2019 to extract rare earth metals from mining waste. The company says its proprietary electrochemical process... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A cleaner path to rare earth metals | daily.dev og:description: Tomás Villalón Jr. cofounded Phoenix Tailings in 2019 to extract rare earth metals from mining waste. The company says its proprietary electrochemical process... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/AvZyY8hbe.png og:image:alt: A cleaner path to rare earth metals og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A cleaner path to rare earth metals **[MIT Technology Review](https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Tomás Villalón Jr. cofounded Phoenix Tailings in 2019 to extract rare earth metals from mining waste. The company says its proprietary electrochemical process generates no toxins and is carbon-free when powered by renewables. Villalón, the company's CTO, notes the mining industry produces several billion tons of waste overall. He studied materials science and engineering and previously worked at Boston Metal, an MIT spinoff decarbonizing steelmaking. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does Phoenix Tailings extract rare earth metals without toxic waste? Phoenix Tailings uses a proprietary electrochemical technique to extract rare earth metals from mining waste. The company states the process generates no toxins and is carbon-free when powered by renewable energy. It was cofounded in 2019 by Tomás Villalón Jr., Michelle Chao, Nick Myers, and Anthony Balladon, with Villalón serving as chief technology officer. _Engineers evaluating cleaner metal extraction methods can follow startups like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Fast Metals is treating waste with more waste to extract critical minerals](https://daily.dev/posts/fast-metals-is-treating-waste-with-more-waste-to-extract-critical-minerals-t6oraibmg) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A solid-state “atomic channel” for separating rare earth elements](https://daily.dev/posts/a-solid-state-atomic-channel-for-separating-rare-earth-elements-rrsk6cg7e) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This startup wants to clean up the copper industry](https://daily.dev/posts/this-startup-wants-to-clean-up-the-copper-industry-54wxd2yml) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Rethinking Rare Earth Metals In Semiconductors Supply Chains](https://daily.dev/posts/rethinking-rare-earth-metals-in-semiconductors-supply-chains-01iukmbk8) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Flash Joule Heating Recovers The Good Stuff](https://daily.dev/posts/flash-joule-heating-recovers-the-good-stuff-kdiqz8jik) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#science](https://daily.dev/tags/science), [#sustainability](https://daily.dev/tags/sustainability) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A cleaner path to rare earth metals","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe"},"datePublished":"2026-10-20T21:26:47.447Z","dateModified":"2026-10-20T21:32:23.183Z","description":"Tomás Villalón Jr. cofounded Phoenix Tailings in 2019 to extract rare earth metals from mining waste. The company says its proprietary electrochemical process...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3aae53f266f9b265f0583641f42cb62d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3aae53f266f9b265f0583641f42cb62d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"MIT Technology Review","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MIT Technology Review","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/a8d03889722f4f22b3986e0b395ff076","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"science,sustainability","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MIT Technology Review","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A cleaner path to rare earth metals"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-cleaner-path-to-rare-earth-metals-avzyy8hbe#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does Phoenix Tailings extract rare earth metals without toxic waste?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Phoenix Tailings uses a proprietary electrochemical technique to extract rare earth metals from mining waste. The company states the process generates no toxins and is carbon-free when powered by renewable energy. It was cofounded in 2019 by Tomás Villalón Jr., Michelle Chao, Nick Myers, and Anthony Balladon, with Villalón serving as chief technology officer. Engineers evaluating cleaner metal extraction methods can follow startups like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```