A cleaner path to rare earth metals

Tomás Villalón Jr.

’14 grew up in San Antonio, Texas, but spent time in Monterrey, Mexico, where his family is from.

As a child, he witnessed the environmental impact of steel manufacturing and metal fabrication in Monterrey, where smog often filled the air.

This experience shaped his motivation to address pollution caused by metal production.

Villalón studied materials science and engineering, a field focused on understanding and developing materials with specific properties for practical use.

During his senior year at MIT, he worked at Boston Metal, an MIT spinoff company aiming to reduce carbon emissions in steelmaking, a process that typically relies on high-carbon methods.

These early experiences led him to cofound Phoenix Tailings in 2019, a company focused on sustainable metal extraction.