USA Rare Earth produces first batch of magnets at Oklahoma plant
USA Rare Earth reached a major milestone this week with the successful production of the first batch of sintered permanent rare earth magnets at its new plant under development in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The production plant — called Innovations Lab — represents part of USA Rare Earth’s vertically integrated rare earth element magnet supply chain, leveraging what it hails as “the only scalable, sintered neo-magnet manufacturing system in the Western Hemisphere.”
The company also controls the mining rights to the Round Top deposit in West Texas, which contains a significant endowment of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium, terbium, gallium and beryllium.
The mine is currently in its engineering phase, targeting first production in 2025/2026, USA Rare Earth has said.
In the meantime, the company will also use rare earth feedstock from other suppliers.
To date, it entered into supply agreements with multiple parties including Australian Strategic Materials and American Resources Corporation.
The Innovations Lab, once fully commissioned, will produce prototype rare earth magnets for the company in support of customer sales, product quality management, and advancement of new innovations in rare earth magnet production, USA Rare Earth said in a press release Tuesday.
The lab was initially slated to enter production in 2024, targeting 1,200 tonnes of per year initially, then ramping up to its nameplate capacity of 4,800 tonnes.
Its primary equipment is modified from the one Hitachi previously used at its magnet production plant in North Carolina.
The company previously said it plans to invest more than $100 million in developing the manufacturing facility in Oklahoma.
“Our new Innovations Lab, which we will finish building out in the coming months, is already flexing its muscles, helping us achieve a key step in our company’s evolution,” USA Rare Earth CEO Joshua Ballard said in the release.
“We will soon begin producing customer prototypes in support of future sales as we work towards starting commercial production at our manufacturing facility in 2026.”
mining.com
Brazil offers $815 million to back strategic minerals projects
Brazil is offering about $815 million in financing for projects aimed at boosting development of strategic minerals within the South American nation.
BNDES and government funding agency Finep, earmarked 5 billion reais in financial backing for companies, including credit lines and equity investments.
The support can be used to develop supply chains of minerals including lithium, rare earth elements, nickel, graphite and silicon, as well as investments in manufacturing batteries, photo-voltaic cells and magnets used in products such as electric vehicles and wind turbines.
Western nations have been ramping up efforts to bolster critical minerals to reduce reliance on China, the dominant supplier of many metals seen as critical to technology.
Brazil, with its significant mineral reserves, is seeking to position itself as a supplier of raw materials while developing a supply chain for value-added metal products.
Such financing could generate 25 billion to 50 billion reais in investments for such projects, according to a Tuesday statement on the announcement.
BNDES President Aloizio Mercadante said they’re looking for partnerships between domestic and foreign entities, from miners to technology holders.
“The call is an important step forward in the mineral sector for achieving the Brazilian government’s goals of expanding the industry’s production capacity in the context of sustainable and technological development of the new industrial policy and the ecological transformation plan,” he said in the statement.
mining.com
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