Topic
Global network of mining, processing, and refining rare earths and other minerals for semiconductors, magnets, and batteries, often strained by trade curbs.
Moog is qualifying Niron's rare-earth-free iron nitride magnets in military actuators while Niron's commercial production is still up to 18 months away. The supply security being pitched to Army buyers depends on that output arriving.
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Defense Logistics Agency gave Austin-based Supra a Phase I SBIR contract to test whether its process can recover scandium from industrial byproducts. For buyers who rely on imported scandium, the award pays for a first check of the chemistry, and high purity at scale is still unproven.
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Orano and the CEA say a Grenoble pilot line reliably makes N45UH magnets, in an EU that gets 98% of its rare-earth magnets from China. Motor and actuator buyers can start tracking the process for qualification, but the industrial line has not been built.
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USA Rare Earth, Pasqal and Riven Systems say they will find better rare-earth extractants using an autonomous lab and quantum machine learning. In the plan announced September 17, the quantum processor's first job is a benchmark.
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The Commerce Department is backing the South Carolina plant with up to $1.6 billion against a $1.2 billion build. Commissioning begins in 2028, so programs shipping before then keep the magnet supply they already have.
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The tonnage on offer is an input figure: the Arizona plant is running commercially and expects its first customer shipments later this month, with more than 7,000 metric tons of feedstock already delivered.
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The announcement names a 287,000-square-foot plant in Minnesota, an annual ceiling of 1,500 tons and a 2027 start. It puts no number on Honda's investment and no magnetic performance figure on the record.
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The Defense Production Act put $43.4 million behind Nova Minerals and the barge has left Seattle, but the grade carrying the 2027 date is a defense trisulfide, leaving flame retardant and battery buyers on an undated later phase.
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The Department of War and a Pinnacle-managed fund are putting in $400 million each, which keeps the only US smelter-grade alumina plant running and pays for a gallium pilot that is still in testing and promising first metal this fall.
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Evolution Metals wants ten times the magnet output from its Pohang plant. The gating item is a power connection that has to grow from 130 megawatts to about 750, and the utility is covering most of that build.
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China's export licence list, not fab capacity or megawatts, is what set the 2026 tungsten price. The arithmetic behind the gas that deposits the metal is smaller than most capex plans assume.
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Greer's account leaves neither capital a price at which to re-enter. No talks are scheduled, and duties on more than $20bn of goods carry a roughly $10bn bill.
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The raise is small for lithium. That is the point: retrofitting extraction into working Chilean evaporation ponds skips the land, permits and buildout that stall new brine projects.
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A 2027 Colorado field test will try to show that quantum gravity gradiometry can rank targets before the rigs arrive. The site, the date and the success bar are all still unnamed.
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A utility foundation with a $20 million commitment reports $555 million in follow-on capital, a multiple National Grid's $500 million venture arm has not matched. The lesson is distribution, not dollars.
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Hertha Metals says it hit 99.95 percent purity with US-only inputs. That material is about 70 percent of a neodymium magnet by weight, and Chinese-origin constituents are barred from January 1, 2027.
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