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Tag: USA Rare Earth

  • USA Rare Earth plans French metal and alloy plant alongside Carester oxide facility

    USA Rare Earth plans French metal and alloy plant alongside Carester oxide facility

    USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR), through its Less Common Metals (LCM) subsidiary, plans to build a rare earth metal and alloy production facility in France next to an oxide processing plant being developed by Carester.

    Carester is currently constructing a 1,600-tonne-per-year oxide processing facility in Lacq, with commissioning scheduled for late 2026. USA Rare Earth’s proposed plant, with a capacity of 3,750 tonnes per annum, will be co-located at the Caremag site, creating an integrated European platform for rare earth processing, metal and alloy production.

    The French government has committed to partially funding the project, including credits covering up to 45% of eligible equipment costs and support of up to €130 million for real estate, according to the company.

    Shares of USA Rare Earth jumped by double digits following the announcement, amid broader gains across the rare earth sector driven by rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and Europe over Greenland. By midday trading in New York, the company’s shares were around $20, valuing it at more than $2.7 billion.

    USAR CEO Barbara Humpton said the French development would strengthen the company’s integrated rare earth value chain and benefit the United States and its allies. In parallel, USA Rare Earth is advancing a domestic mine-to-magnet strategy in the US anchored by its Round Top project in Texas, alongside a magnet manufacturing plant in Oklahoma and processing facilities in Colorado.

  • USA Rare Earth Acquires UK’s Less Common Metals in $100M Deal to Accelerate Mine-to-Magnet Strategy

    USA Rare Earth Acquires UK’s Less Common Metals in $100M Deal to Accelerate Mine-to-Magnet Strategy

    USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR) announced it will acquire Less Common Metals (LCM), a UK-based producer of rare earth metals and alloys, in a $100 million cash-and-stock deal designed to accelerate its vertically integrated mine-to-magnet strategy.

    Under the terms of the agreement, USAR will pay $100 million in cash and issue 6.74 million common shares to complete the transaction. At the time of the announcement, USAR shares traded at $18.70, but have since climbed nearly 30% to $23.36, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.61 billion.

    LCM operates a 67,000-square-foot facility in Cheshire, England, and is one of the only companies outside China capable of producing both light and heavy rare earth permanent magnet metals and alloys at scale. Its product portfolio includes samarium, samarium cobalt, neodymium-praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, yttrium, and gadolinium — all critical materials for defense, automotive, and renewable energy technologies.

    “The acquisition of LCM is a bold and transformative leap forward for our company and the domestic rare earth industry,” said Michael Blitzer, chairman of USA Rare Earth. “Midstream metal making is the linchpin of the global supply chain, and LCM is the only proven ex-China producer of rare earth metal, alloys, and strip casting at scale.”

    The acquisition comes as USA Rare Earth continues to develop a sintered neodymium magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The plant is expected to begin commercial production in the first half of 2026, with an annual capacity of 5,000 metric tons, or hundreds of millions of magnets.

    The facility will be supported by feedstock from the company’s Round Top deposit in West Texas, where USAR recently produced its first sample of dysprosium oxide, a heavy rare earth used in semiconductors, EV motors, wind turbines, and defense applications.

    Blitzer added that the USAR-LCM combination will re-establish rare earth metal production in the United States for the first time in decades, while also expanding LCM’s capabilities across the UK and Europe to strengthen the global supply chain outside China.