MP Materials plans to invest more than $1.25 billion in its upcoming large-scale rare-earth magnet manufacturing campus in Northlake, Texas, fulfilling a key component of its partnership with the U.S. Defense Department.
The new campus, dubbed “10X”, builds on its existing manufacturing capacity in North Texas, adding to its current facility in Fort Worth, the U.S.’s largest rare-earths miner said Thursday.
MP Materials expects to create more than 1,500 direct manufacturing and engineering jobs at the site, and engineering and equipment procurement is underway. The facility is expected to come online in 2028.
Once operational, the factory is set to contribute to the company’s total production capacity of around 10,000 metric tons of rare earth magnets per year, advancing the U.S.’s ability to produce these components locally, said MP Materials.
This comes after the miner struck a deal for the Defense Department to take a 15% stake in the company in July last year. The deal called for MP Materials build a new factory to make rare-earth magnets at a scale that vastly exceeds current U.S. magnet production, aiming to undercut China’s rare-earth dominance.
Rare-earth magnets, which are needed in industrial products such as automobiles, wind turbines, jet fighters and missile systems, have been at the center of the recent U.S.-China trade war.
Beijing began limiting rare-earth exports after President Trump imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods in April last year. The two countries reached a trade truce in June, but the threat of a future cutoff of supplies remain.
MP Materials’ new manufacturing campus therefore accelerates America’s rare earth and magnet independence, said James Litinsky, the miner’s chair and chief executive.