MP Materials building massive manufacturing site in Texas
MP Materials Corp. (MP) announced on Tuesday that it has selected a 120-acre site in North Lake, Texas to build a new large-scale rare earth manufacturing campus.
The planned campus, which will be called 10X, is being built less than 10 miles from MP's existing Independence facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The company said in a press release that by building the new campus in the same area as its current facility, it will make North Texas "the center of gravity for the United States’ rare earth magnet supply chain."
According to MP, the 10X campus will "significantly expand" its fully integrated US rare earth magnetics manufacturing platform, contributing approximately 10,000 metric tons of NdFeB rare earth magnets per year. The company's production already encompasses mining and refining, metallization and alloying, sintering, finished magnet production and closed‑loop recycling.
Once the new campus is fully operationally, it will "dramatically" advance the ability to produce these strategic components domestically in the US, according to MP.
The company is expecting to invest more than $1.25 billion in the project, which it says will create more than 1,500 direct manufacturing and engineering jobs at the site. MP will break ground on the new campus "imminently" and commissioning is set to begin in 2028.
Government backing paid way for 10X
The 10X campus is being built as part of the 10-year public-private partnership that MP signed with the US Department of War (DoW) in July to accelerate rare earth mining in the United States. The company said at the time that the planned 10X facility would be the cornerstone of the project.
As part of the agreement, the DoW has agreed to purchase $400 million of a newly-created series of the MP Material’s preferred stock, which is convertible into shares of the company’s common stock.
This investment makes the Defense Department the largest shareholder of MP materials.
The agreement also establishes a price floor commitment from the DoW of $110 per kilogram for MP Materials’ NdPr products stockpiled or sold, which is meant to reduce vulnerability to non-market forces and ensure stable and predictable cash flow for the company with shared upside.
And for a period of 10 years following the construction of the 10X Facility, the DoW has agreed to ensure that 100% of the magnets produced at the 10X Facility will be purchased by defense and commercial customers with shared upside.
“10X is about building industrial strength at a scale the United States has not seen in generations, and the exceptional talent and infrastructure in North Texas make it possible,” MP Materials founder and CEO James Litinsky said in a statement.
“We are advancing key objectives under our public-private partnership with the Department of War and accelerating America’s rare earth and magnet independence with an uncompromising focus on speed, execution, and delivery.”
Rare earths are the key building block of modern tech, powering everything from electric vehicles and semiconductors to robotics and missile guidance systems.
MP's commercial customers include General Motors Company (GM) and Apple Inc. (AAPL).
The latter entered into a $500-million long-term partnership agreement with MP in July.
The agreement calls for MP Materials to supply Apple with magnets produced at its Fort Worth, Texas, facility—known as Independence—using recycled rare earth feedstock processed at MP’s Mountain Pass site in California.
MP's shares are up nearly 19% so far this year.