MP Materials and General Motors simultaneously announce a supply arrangement starting in late 2023 to make rare earth alloy and magnets for GM’s EV programs.
FORT WORTH, Texas – Today, MP Materials Corp marks the start of construction at its first rare earth metal, alloy, and magnet manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The first-of-its-kind U.S. facility is a significant element of a $700 million investment the firm will make over the next two years to fully fix the U.S. rare earth magnetics supply chain. The undertaking will produce about 150 high-skill jobs and 1,300 indirect jobs located in Hillwood’s 27,000-acre, mixed-use development, AllianceTexas.
MP Materials and General Motors are co-announcing a definitive supply deal to produce alloy and magnets for GM’s electric vehicle programs. The supply agreement solidifies the terms of a binding agreement announced by MP Materials and GM in December. MP Materials will supply U.S.-sourced and manufactured rare earth materials, alloy, and finished magnets for the electric motors in more than a dozen models using GM’s Ultium Platform, with a gradual production ramp expected to begin in late 2023 starting with alloy.
MP Materials’ Fort Worth facility will have the capability to produce approximately 1,000 tonnes of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets per year, supporting the production of roughly 500,000 EV traction motors, with room to scale. In addition to EVs, NdFeB magnets are critical inputs to robots, wind turbines, drones, defense systems, and many other high-growth technologies. Adamas Intelligence, an independent research firm, forecasts that global demand for NdFeB magnets will triple by 2035 on rising demand for EV traction motors, wind power generators, energy-efficient consumer appliances, etc.
In February, the Department of Defense awarded MP Materials $35 million to refine and separate heavy rare earth elements at the company’s Mountain Pass, California, rare earth materials production facility. MP’s Texas magnetics plant will source refined feedstock from Mountain Pass and transform it into finished products, delivering an end-to-end supply chain, including mining and refining, metal, alloy, magnet manufacturing, and recycling.
Mountain Pass is a closed-loop, zero-discharge facility with a dry tailings process that recycles more than 1.7 billion liters of water per year. To optimize for efficiency and sustainability, byproducts generated from alloy and magnet manufacturing will be recycled in a closed-loop to every extent possible.
