Critical Minerals Refiners and Processors

Refining and processing represent the most strategically significant bottleneck in the critical minerals supply chain. While mining operations are distributed across dozens of countries, the conversion of raw ores and concentrates into usable refined metals, oxides, and chemical compounds is heavily concentrated in a small number of companies, predominantly based in China. This processing concentration has become the central concern of Western supply chain security strategies, driving massive investments to build refining capacity in North America, Europe, and allied nations. Understanding the key refining companies and their capabilities is essential for mapping dependencies and evaluating diversification prospects.

Chinese Processing Dominance

China's control of critical mineral processing is the product of decades of strategic industrial policy, subsidized energy costs, relaxed environmental standards, and sustained capital investment. In rare earths, companies like China Northern Rare Earth, Shenghe Resources, and China Southern Rare Earth Group operate integrated separation and refining complexes that process both domestic and imported concentrates. China refines approximately 90 percent of the world's rare earth oxides, a dominance that extends through to metals and alloys production. For cobalt, Huayou Cobalt and CNGR Advanced Material have built massive refining operations that process Congolese cobalt concentrate into battery-grade cobalt sulfate. In lithium, Ganfeng Lithium, Tianqi Lithium, and Yahua Group operate large-scale lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide conversion plants. For a detailed analysis of why China dominates processing, see our geopolitics section.

Integrated Mining-Refining Companies

Several major companies operate across both the mining and refining stages of the value chain, giving them greater control over product quality and supply security. Albemarle operates lithium conversion plants in Australia, Chile, and China alongside its mining operations. SQM has expanded from lithium brine extraction into carbonate and hydroxide production at its Salar de Atacama facility. Umicore, the Belgian materials technology company, processes cobalt, nickel, and other battery raw materials at facilities in Belgium, China, South Korea, and Finland, serving major cathode and battery cell manufacturers. Nornickel operates integrated nickel-copper-PGE smelting and refining operations in Norilsk and Monchegorsk, Russia, and Harjavalta, Finland.

Western Refining Expansion

Government policy in the United States, European Union, Canada, and Australia has catalyzed a wave of new refining and processing projects aimed at reducing dependence on Chinese processing. In the United States, companies like Ascend Elements, Cirba Solutions, and Piedmont Lithium are developing lithium hydroxide conversion capacity. The Department of Energy's Battery Materials Processing Grants program has allocated billions of dollars to support domestic refining projects. In Europe, Finnish company Terrafame produces battery-grade nickel sulfate from its mine-to-chemical operation in Sotkamo, and BASF operates a cathode materials plant in Harjavalta, Finland. Australia's Lynas Rare Earths is expanding its processing capabilities with a new cracking and leaching plant at Kalgoorlie, supplementing its separation facility in Malaysia.

Toll Processors and Contract Refiners

A significant segment of the refining industry operates on a toll processing or contract refining model, where companies process concentrates on behalf of mining companies or trading houses for a fee. This model is common in the platinum group metals sector, where companies like Sibanye-Stillwater and Impala Platinum operate smelters and refineries that process concentrates from multiple mine sources. In the rare earth space, some separation plants offer toll processing services, though capacity outside China remains extremely limited. Toll processing arrangements are often essential for junior mining companies that lack the capital or technical expertise to build their own refining facilities, and they play an important role in enabling new supply to reach the market more quickly than fully integrated projects.

Specialty Metals Refiners

Beyond the battery metals that dominate headlines, a network of specialized refiners produces the high-purity metals essential for aerospace, defense, and advanced technology applications. Freeport Cobalt (now Kokkola Cobalt) in Finland is one of the world's largest cobalt refineries outside China. TIMET (Titanium Metals Corporation) and VSMPO-AVISMA produce titanium sponge and mill products for aerospace applications. Materion Corporation processes beryllium, a strategic metal used in defense and semiconductor applications, at its facility in Ohio. Global Advanced Metals refines tantalum at plants in the United States and Japan, serving the electronics and aerospace industries. These specialty refiners often operate in niche markets with limited competition, making them critical nodes in the supply chains for specific defense and technology applications.

Challenges and Outlook

Building new refining capacity outside China faces substantial challenges including high capital costs, lengthy permitting processes, workforce shortages, and the difficulty of competing with Chinese operations that benefit from scale economies and lower regulatory burdens. Environmental permitting for hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical facilities is particularly complex in Western jurisdictions, where community opposition and stringent environmental standards can delay projects by years. Despite these headwinds, the strategic imperative to diversify processing capacity is driving unprecedented investment from both the public and private sectors, with dozens of new refinery projects advancing toward construction and commissioning globally.

For an overview of how refining and processing fits into the broader value chain, see refining and metallurgy. To understand the specific bottlenecks that make processing concentration so problematic, explore processing and refining bottlenecks.