Medium-Rare Earths

MP Materials enters agreement with DOD for mining production, new facility

MP Materials Corp. today announced it has entered into a public-private partnership with the United States Department of Defense to "dramatically accelerate the build-out of an end-to-end U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain and reduce foreign dependency," per a press release from the Las Vegas-based company.

MP currently operates the world’s second-largest rare earth mine in Mountain Pass, California, where it extracts, refines, and separates rare earth materials. The company is commissioning a magnetics facility in Texas, known as Independence, which anchors its downstream capabilities.

MP Materials was founded in 2017 to revive the Mountain Pass mining area, which was nearing permanent closure after a series of shuffles in ownership, a site that has been active since 1865. In 2018, MP began selling rare earth concentrate from the facility (pictured below).

With a multibillion-dollar package of investments and long-term commitments from DoD, MP Materials will also reportedly construct the company’s second domestic magnet manufacturing facility (the “10X Facility”) at "a soon-to-be-chosen location to serve both defense and commercial customers." Once the new facility is completed, expected to begin commissioning in 2028, MP Materials’ total U.S. rare earth magnet manufacturing capacity will reach an estimated 10,000 metric tons.

MP said it also expects to add "additional heavy rare earth separation capabilities" at its Mountain Pass, California, facility, solidifying its status as a national strategic asset where high-purity rare earth materials are extracted, separated and refined all in one location.

All in all, it's a major transaction that could have effects on the materials used in a number of industrial products. For more details on the agreement, click here to view the full press release.