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The U.S. Is Increasing Efforts to Rebuild Its Rare Earth Supply Chain

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  • The U.S. Army selected REalloys Inc. (ALOY) to build and operate the first commercial critical mineral processing facility on a U.S. military installation at the Tooele Army Depot in Utah.
  • The Tooele complex will refine dysprosium and terbium, heavy rare earth elements critical for high-temperature permanent magnets used in defense systems.
  • Commercial development is scheduled to begin in 2027, with initial operating capability expected by 2028 to align with a January 1, 2027, federal procurement ban on Chinese rare earth materials for defense.
  • REalloys will finance, build, and operate the facility under an Enhanced Use Lease structure, maintaining private ownership, financing, and operations on federal property.
  • The company secured exclusive supply rights for 80% of the expanded output from the Saskatchewan Research Council facility through a $20.6 million investment, with engineering underway and qualification materials expected by Q4 2026.
  • REalloys holds long-term feedstock agreements including 15% of Phase 1 production from Critical Metals' Tanbreez project in Greenland, commitments tied to the Sheep Creek deposit in Montana, and a proposed framework with Ramaco Resources for Wyoming-based coal-hosted rare earths.
  • REalloys aims to begin defense-grade qualification efforts for heavy rare earth materials by the end of 2026 to meet the January 1, 2027, procurement deadline.
  • MP Materials Corp. (NYSE: MP) reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $90.6 million, a 49% year-over-year increase, while producing its first commercial-scale neodymium magnets in Texas and planning a second plant to reach 10,000 metric tons of annual capacity.
  • USA Rare Earth Inc. (NASDAQ: USAR) commissioned its first magnet production line in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with capacity expected to double to 1,200 metric tons annually by early 2027, and selected a new site in South Carolina for a magnet plant creating 490 jobs.
  • Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) posted a 148% year-over-year jump in first-quarter 2026 adjusted EBITDA to $664 million as lithium prices rebounded, using the recovery to retire $1.3 billion in debt.
  • Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) reported first-quarter 2026 net income of $881 million on $6.23 billion revenue, driven by copper prices rising to $5.78 per pound, and secured an agreement extending its Indonesian operating rights past 2041.
  • Perpetua Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: PPTA) received a unanimous $2.9 billion loan approval from the Export-Import Bank to fully fund its Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho, the only identified domestic antimony reserve, after a federal court cleared legal obstacles in May.
  • President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to address defense industrial base bottlenecks and met with major defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and L3Harris to accelerate production.
  • The U.S. government is compressing years of supply chain development into months through procurement restrictions, defense contracts, and the integration of commercial processing into national security infrastructure.