MP Materials to Establish Rare Earth NdFeB Magnet Factory in USA

MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) announced that it will build its initial rare earth (RE) metal, alloy and magnet production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The company also announced that it has signed a binding long-term agreement with General Motors (NYSE: GM) to provide rare earth materials, alloys and finished magnets purchased and manufactured in the United States for electric motors more than a dozen models using GM ultium platform, and gradually expanded the production scale from 2023.

In Fort Worth, MP Materials will develop a 200000 square foot greenfield metal, alloy and neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) magnet production facility, which will also become the business and engineering headquarters of MP Magnetics, its growing magnetic department. The plant will create more than 100 technical jobs in the AllianceTexas development project owned and operated by Hillwood, a Perot company.

MP's initial magnetic facility will have the capacity to produce about 1000 tons of finished NdFeB magnets per year, which is likely to power about 500000 electric vehicle motors per year. The produced NdFeB alloys and magnets will also support other key markets, including clean energy, electronics and defense technology. The plant will also provide NdFeB alloy flake to other magnet manufacturers to help develop a diversified and flexible American magnet supply chain. The waste generated in the process of alloy and magnet production will be recycled. The discarded Neodymium magnets can also be reprocessed into high-purity separated renewable energy oxides in Mountain Pass. Then, the recovered oxides can be refined into metals and produced into high-performance magnets again.

Neodymium iron boron magnets are crucial to modern science and technology. Neodymium iron boron permanent magnets are the key input of electric vehicles, robots, wind turbines, UAVs, national defense systems and other technologies that convert electricity into motion and motors and generators that convert motion into electricity. Although the development of permanent magnets originated in the United States, there is little capacity to produce sintered neodymium iron boron magnets in the United States today. Just like semiconductors, with the popularization of computers and software, it is almost connected with all aspects of life. NdFeB magnets are a basic part of modern technology, and their importance will continue to increase with the electrification and decarbonization of the global economy.

MP materials (NYSE: MP) is the largest producer of rare earth materials in the Western Hemisphere. The company owns and operates the mountain pass rare earth mine and processing facility (Mountain Pass), which is the only large-scale rare earth mining and processing site in North America. In 2020, the rare earth content produced by MP Materials accounted for about 15% of the global market consumption.