Presentation Information
[O7-1]Re-establishing Mine-to-Magnet Manufacturing in the United States
*Judson Marte1, Alan Lund1, Edward Pang1, David Maybury1, Jim McNerney1 (1. MP Materials (United States of America))
Keywords:
NdFeB,Manufacturing
In recent years, MP Materials successfully restarted, restored, and enhanced operations at the Mountain Pass Mine in Mountain Pass, California. The company is on track to achieve an annual production rate of 60,000 tonnes of rare earths in the near future and has re-established separation circuits for both light and heavy rare earth elements. In the past year, MP Materials produced over 1,300 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, a crucial precursor for neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets. As part of its downstream expansion, the company has constructed Independence, its flagship magnet manufacturing plant. In 2024 the Independence facility started commercial production of NdPr metal and trial production of automotive-grade, sintered NdFeB magnets last year. These milestones represent significant progress towards reestablishing a fully integrated domestic supply chain for critical components, a feat not achieved in the United States for decades. This presentation will detail our advancements towards this objective.
