Advances in Domestic Heavy Rare Earth Minerals Production Essential for North American Defense Stockpiles

NEW YORK, March 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MiningNewsWire Editorial Coverage: Rare earth metallization sits deep in the industrial stack, but it is one of the steps that determines whether advanced manufacturing can actually function at scale. China's dominance over rare earth refining, metallization and magnet production has left automakers, electronics manufacturers, robotics developers, defense contractors and data-center-adjacent industrial supply chains exposed to a single concentrated source. That exposure helps explain why companies such as REalloys (NASDAQ:ALOY) (MNW Profile News) are drawing attention – The company is working to rebuild a North American mine-to-magnet platform that links feedstock, processing, metallization and magnet manufacturing, with operations centered in Ohio and upstream and midstream partnerships in Saskatchewan, Canada. These efforts will go far to support leading companies such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD), International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM), Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) that rely on these essential metals.

Reducing Risk, Leaning into Domestic Production

The strategic vulnerability is well documented. "The rare earths export controls announced by China in October 2025 posed major national and economic security risks across the world, with potentially severe impacts for a range of strategic sectors, including energy, automotive, defense, aerospace, AI and semiconductors," reported the International Energy Association ("IEA").

The U.S. Geological Survey ("USGS") noted that China accounted for 70% of U.S. rare-earth compounds and metals import sources in 2020–2023, while U.S. net import reliance for rare-earth compounds and metals was estimated at 80% in 2024. The USGS also estimated China's 2024 mine production at 270,000 metric tons REO equivalent, versus 45,000 metric tons for the United States. That gap matters because mining is only one piece of the chain; the more difficult bottlenecks are separation, metallization and magnet making.

Those bottlenecks impact industries representing trillions of dollars in combined economic activity. Rare earth permanent magnets are central to electric-vehicle drive systems, wind turbines, industrial motors, robotics, aerospace systems and a wide range of electronics. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently stated that neodymium is essential for the strongest permanent magnets and that those magnets are widespread in defense technologies, hard drives, medical imaging devices, electric-vehicle motors and wind turbines.

A Federal Register notice on NdFeB magnets similarly described them as the strongest commercial permanent magnets and said they are used in hundreds of products ranging from headphones and air conditioners to industrial robots. The IEA added in late 2025 that China's rare-earth magnet exports were enough to make components for millions of cars, industrial motors or aircraft, and for thousands of military systems, data centers and wind turbines. 

That is why Washington has been leaning harder into domestic and allied supply chains. The Department of Energy ("DOE") has announced up to $134 million to strengthen domestic rare earth element supply chains, and the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy ("ARPA-E") separately announced $60 million to strengthen and support domestic critical-mineral supply and magnet manufacturing. The Defense Department has also been funding mine-to-magnet capability, including an agreement with E-VAC Magnetics to expand domestic rare earth magnet manufacturing and a push emphasizing rare earths as a strategic materials priority.

Securing the Supply Chain

REalloys is positioning itself directly inside that policy and industrial gap. The company's mission is "securing America's rare earth and magnet supply chain," at least in part by rebuilding North America's missing midstream and restoring the processing step that turns concentrates into purified metals, alloys and magnet materials. The company's platform is designed to be vertically integrated, spanning mining and recycling inputs, metallization, alloying and magnet manufacturing. REalloy production is expected to begin in 2027, with plans to scale magnet manufacturing to 10,000 tons per year.

That product profile is broad enough to matter. REalloys produces or plans to produce high-purity rare earth metals including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, samarium, gadolinium, yttrium and scandium. On the magnet side, the company highlights NdFeB magnets as its core product, while also developing SmFe12 and MnBi technologies.

The company describes NdFeB magnets as the industry standard for electric-vehicle traction motors, wind turbine generators, aerospace platforms, robotics, consumer electronics and precision defense technologies. It also notes that SmFe12 and MnBi are being pursued as next-generation pathways to improve performance or reduce rare-earth dependency in selected applications. 

Facilities Making a Difference

REalloys' Euclid, Ohio, facility is the company's operational anchor. The site is intended to serve as the company's U.S. center for rare earth metallization and magnet fabrication and has a proven track record of delivering heavy rare earth metals, alloys and magnets to commercial and government partners. The company notes that Euclid already has integrated capabilities spanning pyrometallurgy, alloying, strip casting, jet milling, pressing, sintering, grain-boundary engineering and coating for NdFeB, SmFe12 and MnBi magnets. The site is already operating under multiple U.S. government contracts and supplying processed materials into active programs. 

REalloys' other facilities and assets are meant to fill in the rest of the chain. The company identifies Hoidas Lake in northern Saskatchewan as its upstream rare-earth asset, describing its partnership with the Saskatchewan Research Council as the midstream engine that will produce oxides and support metallization. Earlier this month, REalloys announced plans to build what it called the largest heavy rare earth metallization facility outside China, with equipment first built in Saskatoon and then relocated to Ohio. The company noted that the system is expected to produce roughly 30 tonnes of dysprosium and 15 tonnes of terbium metal annually, and that SRC's processing facility would supply NdPr metal as well as Dy and Tb oxides into the chain.

Moving in Metals that Matter

The company has also been moving in adjacent metals that matter for national security. REalloys recently announced that the Defense Logistics Agency had awarded a contract to Terves LLC, whose rare-earth assets were acquired by REalloys through PMT Critical Metals, to scale metallothermal processing for samarium and gadolinium. The contract supports engineering for a 300-ton-per-year modular production facility and is aimed at re-establishing domestic commercial-scale production of Sm and Gd metals, which are essential for samarium-cobalt magnets, radar systems, aerospace applications and other extreme-environment uses. 

The broader takeaway is that rare earths are no longer a niche materials story. They sit under the performance, efficiency and security of modern industrial systems, and China's long-standing control over key parts of the chain has turned metallization and magnet manufacturing into strategic capabilities. REalloys is not the only company pursuing that opening, but its effort to link Hoidas Lake, Saskatchewan, processing and Euclid manufacturing shows the type of allied, North American buildout policymakers increasingly want to see. If those plans are executed, the company could help move part of the rare-earth value chain out of a concentrated overseas system and back onto North American soil. 

Rare Earths Power Next-Gen Innovation

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, advanced computing and next-generation data infrastructure is driving unprecedented demand for the materials that quietly enable these technologies to function. Behind breakthroughs in memory architecture, processor performance, quantum computing integration and large-scale data centers lies a critical dependency on rare earth minerals and high-performance magnet systems.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is releasing an expanded Ryzen(TM) AI portfolio with the launch of the AMD Ryzen(TM) AI 400 Series and Ryzen(TM) AI PRO 400 Series desktop processors. The new processors deliver powerful on-device AI acceleration and next-generation performance, enabling users to run AI applications and LLMs locally and tackle compute-intensive applications.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) has unveiled the industry's first published quantum-centric supercomputing reference architecture, a new blueprint for integrating quantum computing into modern supercomputing environments. The architecture shows how quantum processors (QPUs) can work alongside GPUs and CPUs—across on-premises systems, research centers, and the cloud—in order to tackle scientific challenges that no single computing approach can solve on its own.

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) has announced the availability of Java 26, the latest version of the world's number one programming language and development platform. Java 26 delivers thousands of improvements that boost developer productivity, simplify the language and help developers integrate AI and cryptography functionality into their applications.

Meta Platforms Inc.'s (NASDAQ:META) AI-optimized data centers and infrastructure are an investment in the future of the American economy. American AI is creating skilled jobs, increasing productivity, helping businesses grow and advancing scientific research. As this transformative technology progresses, the company believes it will become ever more valuable to people.

Recent developments across the technology landscape highlight how innovation at the cutting edge is increasingly tied to secure access to critical components. As companies push the boundaries of AI acceleration, quantum architectures and cloud-scale infrastructure, the underlying reliance on rare earth-based components continues to grow. This convergence of technological ambition and material necessity is sharpening the focus on supply chain resilience, with industry and policymakers alike recognizing that the future of computing and intelligent systems will depend not only on software and design but on the steady availability of the specialized materials that make these advances possible.

For more information, visit REalloys (NASDAQ:ALOY) (MNW Profile News)

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