Critical Metals ( NASDAQ:CRML ) shares rocketed 32.6% higher yesterday after the company announced the first assay results from its 2025 drilling program at the Tanbreez rare-earth project in southern Greenland. The results confirmed additional high-grade intersections across the Fjord Deposit and Upper Fjord areas, building on prior drilling success. The stock has now surged approximately 158% year-to-date in 2026 as investors bet on the project's advancement toward a pilot plant launch targeted for May.
There may be an exception to that saying: helping U.S. companies compete in rare earths, a realm where China now dominates mining, refining, and manufacturing. That commitment certainly matters to Barbara Humpton, who last month left the top job at Siemens USA to become CEO of USA Rare Earth. Founded in Oklahoma in 2019, the company's mission is to develop a domestic supply chain for magnets made with rare-earth elements, which are critical in everything from electric vehicles and computers to renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
In reality, rare earths aren't that rare, but just difficult to extract and refine. Yet they've become indispensable to modern life, embedded in everything from our smartphones and electric-vehicle motors to wind turbines and medical imaging machines. And demand is climbing. The real choke point is processing and refining a complex and environmentally sensitive step that the U.S. has lagged behind in and that China now dominates, controlling nearly 90% of global output.
He is expected to discuss trade, with an emphasis on rare earth elements, with Chinese officials. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video However, there will also be expectations that Klingbeil, who is also Germany's finance minister, can make headway in dealing with concerns over an increasing trade deficit with China and exposure to risks from its market.
Energy Fuels ( ) is a leading U.S.-based critical minerals company that is beginning to make waves in the rare earth elements (REE) sector. Operating the White Mesa Mill in Utah - the only fully licensed conventional uranium processing facility in the U.S. - Energy Fuels has expanded into producing high-purity REE oxides, such as neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) and dysprosium (Dy), critical for electric vehicles, defense systems, and renewable energy technologies.
