USA Rare Earth pays $100M cash for UK-based metal alloy producer

USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR) is acquiring one of the most established rare earth metal and alloy producers outside of China, a move that it says represents “a significant acceleration” of its mine-to-magnet strategy.Earlier this week, the company announced that it will acquire United Kingdom-based Less Common Metals (LCM), which currently produces both light and heavy rare earth permanent magnet metals and alloys at scale at its 67,000-square-foot facility in Cheshire.LCM is one of the few companies capable of processing metal oxide feedstocks from both mined and recycled sources, USAR said. Metals and alloys produced at its facility include samarium, samarium cobalt, neodymium-praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, yttrium and gadolinium.Under the terms of the agreement, USAR will pay $100 million cash and issue 6.74 million common shares to acquire LCM. At the time of announcement, its stock traded at $18.70 apiece, but has since gone up nearly 30%, hitting an all-time high of $23.36 on Thursday. It currently trades at nearly $23 a share for a market capitalization $2.61 billion.“The acquisition of LCM is a bold and transformative leap forward for our company and the domestic rare earth industry,” said Michael Blitzer, chairman of USAR, in a press release dated Sept. 29.“Midstream metal making is the linchpin of the global supply chain, and LCM is the only proven ex-China producer of rare earth metal, alloys and strip casting at scale. Over three decades, LCM has brought proven expertise and world-class capability and is the sole Western provider of critical defense materials such as samarium cobalt metal,” he added.Vertically integrated strategyUSAR is in the process of building a sintered neo magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is currently planned to go commercial in the first half of 2026. At full capacity, the facility will be able to produce nearly 5,000 metric tons or hundreds of millions of magnets annually, according to company estimates.The facility is part of USAR’s vertically integrated, mine-to-magnet supply chain strategy, underpinned by the Round Top deposit in West Texas, where it produced its first sample of dysprosium oxide earlier this year.“The production of dysprosium oxide is significant due to its critical role in advanced technologies that rely on the unique properties of heavy rare earth elements,” USAR said at the time, noting that dysprosium is a key component in technologies such as semiconductors, as well as in many neodymium magnets, which are essential for high-efficiency electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators, and advanced defense systems.USA Rare Earth merges with Inflection Point, debuts on NASDAQThe company, which debuted on the NASDAQ mid-March, previously said that it would invest $100 million in the manufacturing facility, after successfully producing its first batch of magnets in January.“The combination of USAR-LCM will establish rare earth metal making in the United States for the first time in decades, as we move quickly to integrate these capabilities in Stillwater, OK, to provide all of the feedstock for the buildout of our 5,000-ton-magnet production facility,” Blitzer said.“Our ambition is also to expand LCM’s capabilities in both the United Kingdom and Europe, supporting the broader ex-China industry with a wide range of defense and industrial applications.”Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com