HOUSTON, January 26th (Argus) - Comprehensive rare earth producer USAR has today agreed to accept a $1.6 billion financial assistance from the US Department of Commerce to advance the vertical supply chain project from rare earth mines to magnets. The US government acquired a stake in the company.
This funding includes $277 million in federal funds and, based on the $1.3 billion guaranteed loan provided by the Department of Commerce, the Department of Commerce will obtain 16.1 million common shares and approximately 17.6 million warrants of USAR.
The company stated that this funding will accelerate its processes in mining, processing, metal and magnet manufacturing.
USAR will extract 40,000 tons of rare earth raw materials per day from its Round Top mine deposit and commence commercial production in 2028. It will process a total of 8,000 tons per year of third-party mixed rare earth concentrate, heavy rare earth elements and key mineral oxides at the Round Top plant. This includes key elements such as dysprosium, terbium, gallium and other nine critical minerals.
The company will build a 10,000-ton per year rare earth metal alloy and rapid solidification sheet processing capacity, increasing the neodymium-iron-boron magnet production capacity to 10,000 tons per year and processing 2,000 tons per year of metal scraps from magnet production.
USAR also raised $1.5 billion from Inflection Point Acquisition based in New York and other large mutual funds.
