MP Materials received a $58.5 million award to advance the construction of what it called “America’s first fully-integrated rare earth magnet manufacturing facility.” The facility in Fort Worth is pictured in this October 2023 photo. (Photo: Business Wire)
The company will use the Section 48C Advanced Energy Project tax credit allocation to advance the construction of its manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
LAS VEGAS—MP Materials reported that it received a $58.5 million award to advance its construction of what it called “America’s first fully-integrated rare earth magnet manufacturing facility.”
The Section 48C Advanced Energy Project tax credit allocation was issued by the IRS and Treasury following a competitive, oversubscribed process administered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The process evaluated the technical and commercial viability and environmental and community impact of approximately 250 projects, MP Materials said in a company release.
The company described neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets as “the world’s most powerful and efficient permanent magnets.” They are an indispensable component found in the electric motors and generators that power hybrid and electric vehicles, robots, wind turbines, drones, electronics, and critical defense systems. More than 90 percent of the world’s NdFeB magnets are produced in China, and global demand is expected to triple by 2035, according to the release.
MP Materials began constructing its Fort Worth, Texas, manufacturing facility in April 2022. The company is currently producing magnet precursor materials in a North American pilot facility. It expects to begin commercial production of precursor materials in Fort Worth this summer, and finished magnets, by late 2025. MP Materials said it will supply these products to General Motors, its foundational customer, to support its North American EV production.
MP Materials said it will source the factory’s raw material inputs from Mountain Pass, California, where MP owns and operates what it called “America’s only scaled and operational rare earth mine and separations facility.” At the factory, NdPr oxide produced at Mountain Pass will be reduced to NdPr metal and converted to NdFeB alloy and finished magnets. The result, according to MP, will be “an end-to-end supply chain with integrated recycling and world-class sustainability.”
The company said that a Section 232 investigation completed by the Department of Commerce in 2022 found that sintered NdFeB magnets are “required for critical infrastructure” and “irreplaceable in key defense applications.” Yet the U.S. is “essentially 100 percent dependent on imports, posing a serious national security risk.”