Only in China. Molycorp cracked that problem when they restarted the Mountain Pass, CA rare earths mine. They had to deal with EPA regulations, California regulations, and the Sierra Club, and they succeeded. Now the price has fallen and they're reorganizing in bankruptcy.

Molycorp's new process gets rid of the huge settling ponds that used to be used, and recycles most of the working chemicals and water. (Recovering the water, instead of evaporating it, is a big win; they're on the edge of the Mojave Desert and water is expensive.) What comes out is a dry waste, which is basically what was dug out of the ground minus the good stuff. But about half their plant is resource recovery.