Reinventing mineral processing chemistry.
Demand has never been more urgent.
The resource is already here.
Critical minerals sit in operating mines, processing plants, and accumulated tailings across the country. What limits domestic supply is not the presence of the ore — it is how much usable metal comes out of it. ionX raises that number on equipment that already exists.
Optimized processing chemistry for critical minerals.
ionX has cut reagent development from decades of trial and error to days.
Ore-specific
Chemistry matched to a specific feed and flowsheet.
Sustainable
More metal from ore already mined — less waste per ton.
Deployable today
Runs on existing equipment — no new capital.
Proven on phosphate feedstocks.
Extended to rare earth.
ionX develops the reagent schemes at every step where chemistry decides the outcome — flotation, cracking, solvent extraction, and refining.
Built at Stanford.
A defense-innovation ecosystem.
References to U.S. Government programs reflect ionX's participation and origin and do not imply endorsement by the Department of Defense, the Defense Innovation Unit, or any U.S. Government agency.
ionX in the news.
A 2026 national-security problem statement
ionX is one of Stanford Hacking for Defense's 2026 teams, sponsored by In-Q-Tel — tasked with a domestically viable, energy-efficient path to separate heavy rare-earth elements and secure the supply chain for critical defense systems.
View the problem →Meet H4D Team ionX: Closing the Strategic Minerals Gap
A feature on how ionX pairs computationally screened, ore-specific reagent schemes with bench-scale validation to raise recovery on existing equipment — strengthening domestic and allied critical-mineral supply chains.
Read the feature →Let's talk critical minerals.
Rare earths, phosphate, or another strategic feed — we'd like to hear from you.