Maglut Heavy Industries, the company developing a chromatography-based platform to process and refine rare earth elements domestically, today announced it is emerging from stealth.

As inputs to semiconductors, energy infrastructure, defense systems, and most modern technology, rare earth elements are essential to national security, yet the U.S. currently has little domestic capacity to separate and process them.

Maglut’s approach takes inspiration from a separation technique the biotech industry has spent decades refining to purify biologic medicines, and reinvents it for rare earth processing at scale. Unlike solvent extraction, the labor- and energy-intensive method historically used domestically and abroad, Maglut’s water-based process is designed to separate rare earth elements at a globally-competitive cost and with a strong social license to operate.

“Rare earth processing is one of the clearest examples of a sovereign capability America let atrophy,” said Curtis Wu, Co-founder and CEO of Maglut. “The countries that control access to critical minerals will shape the next era of technology. Our mission is to rebuild domestic manufacturing of rare earth materials by reimagining the way they are processed.”

The company is marking the milestone with an invitation-only event at its Long Beach headquarters, offering guests a first look at ARC-1, Maglut’s novel separation system, and the team’s approach to solving one of American manufacturing’s biggest strategic vulnerabilities.

Maglut is the only vertically-integrated chromatography company, designing and manufacturing its own resin technology. The company has validated its ARC-1 process at pilot scale, separating real-world feedstock into individual rare earth oxides at 99.9% purity and higher.

The launch comes as rare earth supply chains face renewed scrutiny. Beginning in January 2027, new Department of War rules require defense contractors to remove China from their rare earth magnet supply chains, creating clear long-term demand for domestic alternatives. At the same time, decades of cost improvements in chromatography, paired with rising rare earth prices, have created an opening for a new approach to take hold.

About Maglut Heavy Industries

Maglut Heavy Industries is developing a chromatography-based platform to process and refine rare earth elements domestically. Founded by MIT alum Curtis Wu and Azhar Yerzhanova, the venture-backed company takes inspiration from a processing technique long used in the biotech industry and reimagines it for critical minerals for the first time at scale. Maglut is vertically- integrated, designing and manufacturing its own resin technology in-house. The company aims to produce high-purity rare earth oxides at a globally-competitive cost and without the toxic solvents used in conventional processing. Maglut is based in Long Beach, California.

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