A Fishers-based technology company working to strengthen the nation’s supply of critical minerals has announced a new tool designed to track those materials from origin to end use.
ReElement Technologies, affiliated with American Resources Corporation, announced it has minted what it calls the world’s first utility token designed to track the supply chain for critical minerals used in advanced technology and defense systems.
The token, developed in partnership with blockchain infrastructure firm SAGINT Inc., creates a digital record documenting the chain of custody for refined rare-earth materials. The system captures data from the sourcing of raw materials through processing and refining, creating what the companies describe as a secure and verifiable record of origin and handling.
Company officials say the technology could help manufacturers meet strict federal supply-chain requirements for defense contractors under the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, commonly known as DFARS.
The token was created within a private blockchain environment and has already been used to document batches of neodymium oxide, a rare-earth material used to produce high-strength magnets found in electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and military equipment.
ReElement Technologies is headquartered in Fishers and is part of the growing domestic effort to reduce reliance on foreign sources of rare-earth materials. The United States currently mines some rare-earth minerals but has limited capacity to refine them, a process that has historically been dominated by overseas facilities.
The company’s refining technology uses a chromatographic separation process designed to isolate rare-earth elements at very high purity levels, often exceeding 99.9 percent. The approach also allows the company to recover rare-earth materials from recycled electronics, batteries and other industrial sources.
While corporate operations are based in Fishers, ReElement operates refining facilities in central Indiana, including a commercial purification plant in Noblesville and a larger refining campus under development in Marion.
Company leaders say technologies such as supply-chain traceability and domestic refining capacity are increasingly important as the United States works to secure materials critical to advanced manufacturing, renewable energy systems and national defense.
For Fishers, the presence of ReElement places the city within a rapidly developing sector of the U.S. economy focused on rebuilding domestic production and processing of rare-earth and other critical minerals.