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Pentagon investment spotlights MP Materials in US rare earth race
Mountain Pass is the only large-scale US rare earth mine, producing light rare earths needed for neodymium and praseodymium magnets used in EVs, motors, and defense systems.
OilPrice reports that the Pentagon’s investment in MP Materials is the biggest US intervention in the rare earth industry in decades, framed as a move to build domestic capacity for a strategically important supply chain.
The outlet says MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine is the only large-scale rare earth operation in the United States and one of the world’s largest producers of light rare earths, including ore rich in neodymium and praseodymium.
According to OilPrice, those elements underpin high-performance permanent magnets used in electric vehicles, industrial motors, and defense systems, while dysprosium and terbium are described as heavy rare earths used for magnets that must operate under extreme temperatures.
The report adds that Mountain Pass is primarily a light rare earth deposit, and that supporting large-scale domestic production of high-temperature permanent magnets requires additional dysprosium and terbium feedstock, plus downstream separation, metallization, alloy production, and magnet manufacturing capacity.