smelt

The Japanese are investing in U.S. smelting of copper, a critical mineral, and a lithium-ion-phosphate processing plant.

The US Treasury Secretary slammed export curbs imposed by Beijing last week on technologies used for rare-earth mining, smelting, and other processing steps.

U.S. smelting has declined under high energy costs, and there has also been chronic underinvestment in rolling, extrusion and finishing, he added.

These include mining, smelting and separation, magnetic material manufacturing, and recycling rare earths from other resources.

"The worst part was the water. It smelt like sewage. We drank as little as possible."