This week, rare earth prices outside China remained stable, while the US continued to acquire mature rare earth enterprises outside China [SMM Rare Earth Ex-China Weekly Review].

Overseas Market Updates

Pricing: Rare earth oxides: Cerium oxide FOB held steady at $2,094–2,178/mt, cerium oxide CIF (Rotterdam) held steady at $2,827–2,837/mt, and lanthanum oxide FOB held steady at $1,023–1,083/mt. Praseodymium oxide FOB was at $120–124/kg, neodymium oxide FOB was at $155–187/kg, and neodymium oxide CIF (Rotterdam) held steady at $235–255/kg. Dysprosium oxide FOB held steady at $254–308/kg, and terbium oxide FOB held steady at $1,103–1,191/kg.

Rare earth metals: Praseodymium metal FOB held steady at $156–164/kg, neodymium metal FOB at $145–165/kg, and terbium metal FOB at $1,391–1,475/kg. Yttrium metal FOB was at $33–38/kg, and lanthanum metal FOB was at $3.0–3.1/kg, with prices remaining generally stable.

Trading: Export and overseas prices held steady this week. The slight adjustment in domestic prices has yet to exert a meaningful impact on overseas prices. Overseas deliveries continued to shrink this week, and market trading volumes were relatively small.

Highlights from Overseas Rare Earth Markets

[Australia] Iluka Eneabba secures federal loan and locks in automaker offtake

Australia’s Iluka Resources disclosed two developments on June 22. First, it signed a four-year binding offtake agreement (take-or-pay mechanism) with an undisclosed global automotive company to supply neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium oxides for magnetic material production, totaling 1,200 mt of rare earth oxides, accounting for 10% of Iluka’s planned production over the contract period. Pricing will be at a premium level linked to the market, with minimum revenue of $155 million over the contract term, or $172 million based on industry forecast prices. Second, Export Finance Australia confirmed a A$1.65 billion non-recourse federal loan for its Eneabba rare earth refinery in Western Australia. The refinery, Australia’s first fully integrated rare earth refinery, is over 50% complete and is scheduled to begin production in mid-2027, with a capacity of 23,000 mt/yr. Capital expenditure remains at A$1.7–1.8 billion. Civmec has been awarded the contract for in-plant structural, mechanical, piping, electrical, and instrumentation works. The first A$1.25 billion tranche of the loan is expected to be fully drawn before the end of 2026, corresponding to 75% completion of Eneabba.

[US] Energy Fuels to acquire VAC; secures dual government funding lines; White Mesa expansion update

US-based Energy Fuels disclosed it will acquire German magnetic material producer Vacuumschmelze (VAC) for $1.9 billion in cash and stock consideration. VAC has capacity in North America, Europe, and Asia, producing sintered NdFeB permanent magnets, NdFeB magnetic materials, and cobalt-iron and nickel-iron soft magnetic products. Its Sumter facility in South Carolina, US, has a permanent magnet capacity of 2,000 mt/yr, expandable to 12,000 mt/yr. Upon acquisition, VAC will retain its German headquarters and become a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Fuels. VAC previously secured a $41 million grant from the US Department of State to develop US-based metal manufacturing facilities. Separately, Energy Fuels disclosed two government funding support lines: first, it received a conditional loan of up to $725 million with a 20-year term from the US Office of Strategic Capital to expand its White Mesa Mill in Utah and build a US-based metals facility; second, it received a conditional $725 million loan from the US Department of Defense to expand critical mineral processing capacity and build rare earth metal and alloy facilities. Both loans remain subject to further due diligence, finalization of agreements, and approvals.

On the White Mesa progress front, the first barrel of dysprosium oxide was produced in August 2025, and pilot-scale high-purity terbium oxide was produced in March 2026. Phase 1 can process 10,000 mt/yr of monazite concentrates, yielding 1,000 mt/yr of Pr-Nd oxide and concentrates containing samarium and other heavy rare earths. Equipment is currently being installed to process mixed rare earth carbonate into rare earth oxides, with commercial production planned for mid-2027. Phase 2 will add capacity of 5,513 mt/yr of Pr-Nd, 48 mt/yr of terbium, 165 mt/yr of dysprosium, and 748 mt/yr of samarium and other heavy rare earth concentrates, with an estimated capital cost of $419 million and a Pr-Nd operating cost of $29.39/kg. Raw materials will come from its wholly owned Vara Mada heavy mineral sands project in Madagascar. Energy Fuels also holds full ownership of the Bahia heavy mineral sands project in Brazil and a 49% stake in the Donald project in Australia. Its existing White Mesa Mill can process uranium, vanadium, and rare earths. The company plans to acquire an Australian strategic minerals company in January 2026, gaining access to its commercial rare earth metal and alloy capacity from an existing plant in South Korea and a planned facility in the US. The US metals facility will have an initial alloy capacity of 2,000 mt/yr, expandable to 4,000 mt/yr, with final approvals expected before the end of 2026 and a two-year construction period.

[Canada] Ucore ships NdPr oxide qualification samples for downstream magnetic material certification

Ucore Rare Metals, a TSX-V listed company, announced it has shipped initial qualification samples of commercial-grade neodymium-praseodymium oxide to mainstream rare earth permanent magnet producers. The samples were produced at its Kingston, Ontario, Stage 52 RapidSX demonstration plant by processing ion-adsorption clay-sourced heavy mixed rare earth oxide feedstock into NdPr chloride with a purity exceeding 99.5%, which was then converted into NdPr oxide with a purity of over 99.5%. This sample shipment aims to connect with the downstream supply chains for magnetic materials, metals, alloys, and advanced materials, and will subsequently support midstream rare earth oxide supply for its Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex. The product suite includes dysprosium, terbium, and NdPr. The downstream customer qualification process will cover independent assays for purity and impurities, oxide characteristics verification, compatibility assessments for magnetic material production, and the finalization of long-term supply agreement terms. Ucore has already signed strategic cooperation agreements with several mainstream permanent magnet producers that are planning to expand Western magnetic material capacity.

[South America] Aclara’s Penco project in Chile clears environmental assessment, advancing a cross-border “ore–separation–alloy” chain

Aclara Resources, a Toronto-listed company, announced that the final environmental license for its Penco rare earth project in the Biobío Region of Chile, in partnership with Chilean steel and mining group CAP, has been approved. The project is an ion-adsorption type rare earth deposit supplying raw materials for permanent magnet production, with a previously disclosed total investment of $130 million, expected to create approximately 700 construction jobs and 400 operational positions. Aclara plans to build a “mine-to-magnet” supply chain spanning raw materials from Chile and Brazil, a heavy rare earth separation facility in Louisiana, US, and downstream alloy production in partnership with CAP, positioning Penco as the Chilean link in this chain.

[Africa] Nigeria’s Hasetins and South Africa’s Steenkampskraal advance on dual tracks

A delegation formed by the Mines Inspectorate Department and the Mines Environmental Compliance Department of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development visited the site of the $400 million rare earth processing plant being advanced by Hasetins Commodities in Nasarawa State to verify safety compliance. The project, planned as Africa’s largest rare earth and critical mineral processing facility, is expected to create 10,000 jobs. Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals had previously disclosed related plans for the project.

In South Africa, the Steenkampskraal deposit in Western Cape Province—the world’s highest-grade rare earth–thorium ore, originally put into production by Anglo American in 1952 to extract thorium for international nuclear programs, later placed on care and maintenance, and approved in 2024 by South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator and the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources to end such status—has its Phase 1 metallurgical plant, a partnership with South Africa’s national research institution Mintek, fully funded by the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The plant is currently under construction and is scheduled for commissioning in August 2025, with concentrates expected by end-2025 and the first shipment by the end of 2025, making it Africa’s first project to achieve rare earth product output through a partnership between a miner and a national research institution. SMM Executive Director Enock Mathebula stated that the next steps include building South Africa’s domestic rare earth separation capabilities, with the goal of turning the country into an African rare earth processing hub. The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation will leverage its own technologies to participate in the development of high-end value chains for rare earths and thorium, covering industrial and medical application fields. Commercial rare earth product production is set to begin in South Africa in 2025, with long-term plans to expand rare earth and thorium beneficiation and medical isotope production. Separately, REalloys is advancing an integrated mine-to-magnet supply chain in North America, holds the Hoidas Lake project in Saskatchewan, and features a diversified network for combined raw materials and recycling partnerships.