As China leverages its domination of the rare earths value chain ahead of trade talks with President Donald Trump, the U.S. is trying to bolster its own capabilities.

Rare earths are critical for a variety of high-tech products, including for electric vehicles and weapons systems like submarines and fighter jets. And it’s amidst all that geopolitical tension that a first-of-its-kind heavy rare earth separation facility has been announced in Louisiana.

That torque you feel after hitting the accelerator of an electric car happens because of special magnets used in motors.

“And those magnets, to operate at the temperature they need to, it's based on these heavy rare earths, the dysprosium and terbium,” said Hugh Broadhurst with Aclara Resources, the company opening the new facility that will make dysprosium and terbium oxides through a unique process. It involves separating ionic clay that the company will source from its new mines in Chile and Brazil.

“What our customers need is a robust supply chain that is separated from the geopolitical issues that are going on today,” Broadhurst said.

As the U.S. develops its rare earths value chains, this new facility — dedicated to ionic clay separation — is a milestone, per Evelyn Wang, vice president for energy and climate at MIT.

“This capability of separations in particular is challenging across our allied nations, because it's dominated by China right now,” she said.

The new facility is expected to be in operation by 2028.