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I'm trying to find out if the rare earth extraction plant that MP Minerals was building in Alliance, TX actually got built.[1] Google and Bing pictures are from 2021 and show a vacant lot. If anyone is near there, please go to the corner of Independence and Victory and see how the construction is going.

PR: "MP Materials broke ground for its magnet factory at Alliance last April, and completed the building’s shell in September. ... The company plans to start delivering alloy from the Fort Worth plant to General Motors late this year, and magnets in 2025, MP Materials founder James Litinsky said in an annual profit report meeting."

MP Minerals already has the largest rare earth mine in the US, at Mountain Pass, CA. That went bankrupt in 2015 because of low-priced competition from China. They finally got a process working that didn't cause major pollution problems.

That mine has been back in action since 2018. They only do initial separation at the mine; the ore is shipped to China for further processing until the US plant gets going.

China had a near-monopoly in rare-earths processing. Had. About six weeks ago, MP Minerals made a deal with Sumitomo in Japan to provide ore for to be processed into rare earths in Japan.[3][4]

There's also some company called US Rare Earths, with a mine in Colorado. Their PR shows lots of funding and announcing, not so much manufacturing and shipping.

China has been making rare-earth metal threats for years. The main result is that China's share of rare earth mining has dropped from 80% to about 55% as the US and Australia ramp up.[2] Also that the industry has become very profitable. MP Minerals profit more than doubled last year. 10-20 years ago, everybody in this space was going bust.

[1] https://mpmaterials.com/articles/mp-materials-begins-constru...

[2] https://www.mining-technology.com/features/australia-rare-ea...

[3] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/02/22/business/us-rar...

[4] https://www.pm-review.com/mp-materials-and-sumitomo-corporat...




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