MP Materials announced the first trial production of NdFeB magnets at the Fort Worth facility in Texas, USA.

USA-based rare earth miner and processor, MP Materials, announced the trial production of NdFeB magnets at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The announcement comes at the same time as MP Materials began commercial scale production of rare earth metal products, principally Nd-Pr alloys which are a crucial feedstock for NdFeB manufacturing.

There has been a significant push to develop NdFeB magnet manufacturing capacity within the USA in recent years, as the dependency of the USA on imports of these critical magnet technologies for automotive, renewable energy and defence applications has been highlighted.  MP Materials represents just one of several projects expected to commission NdFeB magnet production capacity within the USA, though is the only developer to have developed a US-based integrated mine-to-magnet supply chain.  Questions remain, however, over the source of MP Materials’ heavy rare earth content of its NdFeB magnets, which are expected to be sourced via third party imports, as MP Materials’ Mountain Pass operation in California, USA produces very limited volumes of dysprosium and terbium oxides in concentrates.

The production of NdFeB alloys and magnets represents a forward step in developing and growing a connected rare earth supply chain within the USA.  Despite this, it is unclear if the NdFeB magnets produced by MP Materials currently will be suitable for the aforementioned high growth end-use applications.  Automotive drive trains and military applications typically require NdFeB magnets with higher coercivity and performance characteristics, which have proved challenging for new magnet producers to achieve, particularly within higher levels of heavy rare earth elements additives