Austin based startup Supra Elemental Recovery has taken a significant step toward securing the American supply chain after landing a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research contract from the U.S. Department of Defense. Working specifically with the Defense Logistics Agency, the company will evaluate whether its proprietary separation platform can feasibly and scalably recover high purity scandium from domestic industrial byproducts. This move comes as part of a broader federal push to reduce reliance on foreign imports, particularly those coming from China, which currently dominates the rare earth refining market.
The technology behind Supra’s approach was born out of research at the University of Texas at Austin before the company officially spun off in early 2026. Rather than relying on conventional refining techniques that are often slow and environmentally taxing, Supra uses specialized reusable cartridges that act like sponges to dissolve and capture critical minerals from industrial waste. According to the company, this method can be up to 100 times faster and more selective than existing processes, all while avoiding the production of toxic byproducts.
CEO Katie Durham emphasized that while the United States possesses plenty of scandium resources onshore, the challenge has always been extracting them efficiently enough to meet domestic demand. By focusing on both scandium and gallium initially, Supra aims to provide a resilient alternative to current supply chains. However, their ambitions extend beyond those two elements; the firm is already working to validate its platform for other essential battery and magnet materials such as lithium, cobalt, and various lanthanides.
Industry confidence in Supra’s vision is growing quickly beyond government contracts. The startup recently secured an investment from mining giant Rio Tinto and joined the Defense Industrial Base Consortium to help strengthen national security infrastructure. As COO Jordan Sessler noted during the company’s launch, rare earths themselves are not actually rare but are notoriously difficult and expensive to purify. By diversifying both their sources and the elements they recover, Supra believes it can finally break the bottleneck in critical mineral refinement.