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    "story_id": "mp-2026-09-10-005",
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    "headline": "Sixteen Wells Found the Best Recorded Rare-Earth Result",
    "slug": "sixteen-wells-found-the-best-recorded-rare-earth-result",
    "dek": "Decision-focused active learning reached a recycled-magnet enrichment maximum with 16 to 24 experiments instead of 48.",
    "summary": "Decision-focused active learning reached a recycled-magnet enrichment maximum with 16 to 24 experiments instead of 48.",
    "body_text": "Using records from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s CICERO selective-precipitation workflow, the authors retrospectively tested how active learning could choose experiments for critical-material recovery. Adaptive policies found the best recorded neodymium-iron-boron enrichment after 16 to 24 wells, while nonadaptive space filling required 48; two reconstructed policies tied at 16. Results for samarium-cobalt magnets and produced water exposed purity, yield and measurement-assumption trade-offs. The work is conditional and retrospective, and the authors call for a preregistered prospective test before claiming scale-up gains.",
    "why_it_matters": "Decision-focused active learning reached a recycled-magnet enrichment maximum with 16 to 24 experiments instead of 48.",
    "limitations": [
      "Using records from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s CICERO selective-precipitation workflow, the authors retrospectively tested how active learning could choose experiments for critical-material recovery.",
      "The work is conditional and retrospective, and the authors call for a preregistered prospective test before claiming scale-up gains."
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        "text": "Decision-focused active learning reached a recycled-magnet enrichment maximum with 16 to 24 experiments instead of 48.",
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        "qualification": "Using records from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s CICERO selective-precipitation workflow, the authors retrospectively tested how active learning could choose experiments for critical-material recovery."
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    "tags": [
      "critical materials",
      "active learning",
      "recycling"
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  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-09-10-005",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2609.09413",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.09413",
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      "published_at": "2026-09-07T20:00:00.000-04:00",
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    "title": "Sixteen Wells Found the Best Recorded Rare-Earth Result",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-09-10T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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