REalloys Commits $40 Million to Build Largest Non-China Heavy Rare Earth Metal Plant

REalloys has given the green light to a heavy rare earth metallization facility, it says will be the largest of its kind outside China, and the first commercial-scale operation in North America built to comply with U.S. defense sourcing rules taking effect in 2027. The project is fully financed after a recent $50 million raise, and first operations are targeted for the first half of 2027.

While the numbers behind the plant are modest, they are strategically loaded. Roughly $40 million in capital, with about 30 tons of dysprosium and 15 tons of terbium produced annually. Those two elements do not make headlines the way lithium or cobalt do, but without them, the high-temperature permanent magnets inside fighter jet actuators, missile fin controls, electric vehicle motors, and wind turbine generators simply do not work at the performance levels their designers need.

Equipment for the facility will be built in Saskatoon in partnership with the Saskatchewan Research Council, then relocated to Ohio once commissioning and test runs are complete. That move puts the plant next door to REalloys’ existing metallization operation in Euclid, Ohio. This is currently the only heavy rare earth metallization capability running anywhere in North America. Feedstock is already locked in, with REalloys holding rights to 80% of the output from SRC’s Rare Earth Processing Facility in Saskatoon, the first commercial-scale rare earth processing plant on the continent.

The timing is notable. Under 10 U.S.C. §4872 and DFARS 252.225-7052, Pentagon procurement waivers that still allow sourcing from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are set to expire in 2027. Any contractor supplying magnets to the U.S. Defense Industrial Base or the Defense Logistics Agency’s strategic stockpiles will need an allied supply chain in place before those rules bite. REalloys is building to fill exactly that gap.

“This is not a pilot plant; this will be full-scale commercial capacity, built with zero Chinese nexus,” said REalloys chairman Stephen duMont.

For a sector still crowded with projects stuck in permitting, financing or scale-up limbo, a fully funded build anchored to existing Ohio capacity and a proven Canadian feedstock line is a different proposition altogether. The test now is whether the timeline holds.

Article source REalloys Inc.

Image Source by Morteza Mohammadi on Unsplash