Rare earth oxides: Pr-Nd oxide FOB quoted at $115-127/kg, Pr-Nd oxide CIF Rotterdam quoted at $108-122/kg, cerium oxide FOB quoted at $2,005-2,007/mt, cerium oxide CIF (Rotterdam) quoted at $2,722-2,792/mt, holding steady for now, praseodymium oxide FOB quoted at $126-130/kg, holding steady for now, neodymium oxide FOB quoted at $141-143/kg, down $5/kg, terbium oxide FOB quoted at $1,206-1,294/kg, down $7/kg.
Rare earth metals: Pr-Nd alloy FOB quoted at $136-142/kg, Pr-Nd alloy CIF (Rotterdam) quoted at $140-144/kg, lanthanum metal FOB quoted at $3/kg, praseodymium metal FOB quoted at $158-166/kg, neodymium metal FOB quoted at $148-160/kg, holding steady for now, terbium metal FOB quoted at $1,508-1,592/kg, up $7/kg.
Trading: Prices outside China held steady this week, as stable domestic prices and limited growth in international demand due to licensing constraints kept price fluctuations muted.
Weekly review of overseas highlights
US domestic: Closing the last mile from magnet plants to recycling : USAR broke ground this week on a 124-acre, 800,000-square-foot rare earth metal and magnet plant at the Bailey Industrial Park in Blacksburg, South Carolina, with an investment of approximately $1.2 billion and an expected 490 manufacturing jobs, marking the transition of its "Round Top mine source—Less Common Metals alloy—Blacksburg metal/magnet" closed loop into the civil construction phase. Combined with its completed $2.8 billion acquisition of Brazil's Serra Verde Pela Ema, securing one of the few producing dysprosium and terbium resources outside Asia (targeting approximately 6,400 mt REO/year), as well as up to $1.6 billion in funding from the US Department of Commerce, $565 million in DFC financing for Serra Verde, and a 15-year offtake backstop, USAR has established the initial framework of a full "mine-to-magnetic-material" chain. The recycling side is also accelerating: Cyclic Materials' commercial plant in Mesa, Arizona, has a processing capacity of 25,000 mt/year of magnet scrap, has received over 7,000 mt of raw material, and is about to ship its first products. IonicRE and USSM have set up a 50:50 joint venture recycling plant near Fredericktown, Missouri, with an initial $5 million FEED, USSM bearing approximately $95 million in capex, and IonicRE's Belfast recycling technology being introduced, targeting coverage of NdFeB, samarium-cobalt, and heavy rare earth byproducts such as europium/gadolinium/holmium/erbium/ytterbium/lutetium/yttrium. The common significance of both types of projects lies in reducing single-point dependence on new mine construction and using urban mining to smooth dysprosium and terbium price fluctuations.
Brazil and South America: Ionic clays become the "non-China core growth pool" for medium-heavy rare earths : This week saw intensive upstream metallurgy and pilot-scale developments—IMC released laboratory results for the Itarantim ionic adsorption clay, with terbium recovery rates up to 95.2% and the ability to produce mixed rare earth carbonate, focusing on high-grade terbium-bearing adsorption-type resources. BRE produced its first concentrates at the Phase 1 pilot plant in Camaçari, and the Phase 2 hydrometallurgical plant received joint investment and technical assistance, targeting commissioning in Q2 2027, validating synergistic recovery of Pr-Nd oxide, heavy rare earth concentrates, and uranium/scandium/niobium/titanium/tantalum, and striving to push net unit costs below the $21/kg PrNd equivalent from the scoping study. Viridis obtained a $15.2 million loan from Brazilian development bank BNDES to build a research center in Minas Gerais and the Colossus pilot plant, simulating industrial conditions to produce mixed carbonate, complementing its earlier $120 million equity financing, with construction targeted for 2027 and operations for 2028. The common features of South American projects are high terbium content/high leachability and relatively manageable low-radioactivity tailings, but commercialization pace remains constrained by outsourced smelting and separation, environmental permits, and Brazil's critical minerals regulatory framework—in the short term, producing ore is easy, but producing single oxides is difficult.
Financing and offtake: US and Japan use long-term capital to lock in non-China supply : Aclara's Vinton Dynamo separation-metal-alloy plant in Louisiana received a letter of intent for a loan of up to $750 million from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, with a 15-year term, with construction planned to start in Q4 and commissioning targeted for mid-2028, producing 1,131 mt of PrNd, 148 mt of Dy, and 25 mt of Tb annually, with raw materials sourced from mixed carbonates from Brazil's Carina and Chile's Penco, and conversion to magnet alloys through the CAP joint venture. JOGMEC simultaneously signed a Brazilian exploration agreement with Aclara, with up to $3 million over three years and an option to add $1.5 million, in exchange for up to 30% equity interest plus an additional 10% offtake on equity production, with the possibility of transferring to Japanese enterprises, reflecting Japan's proactive move to secure equity interests upstream amid a context where buyers are only obtaining about two-thirds of required rare earths. Overall, overseas weekly developments are shifting from "announcing mines" to "locking in separation and government funding": without offtake agreements and EXIM/DFC/JOGMEC-level financing, even high-grade ionic clays are difficult to convert into deliverable magnet raw materials.
![[SMM Rare Earth Morning Meeting Summary] Pr-Nd series stopped rising and shifted to a stable weak balance, dysprosium series temporarily stable while terbium continued to decline, magnetic material activity was average](https://imgqn.smm.cn/usercenter/iUuCJ20251217171744.jpeg)
![Rare Earth Prices Remain Stable Overall, Market Trading Continues to Be Weak [SMM Rare Earth Daily Review]](https://imgqn.smm.cn/usercenter/UoswK20251217171743.jpeg)
