US Defense Dept. Awards $2M to ReElement for Rare Earth Capacity Boost

Recently, the rare earth automotive steel independently developed by Bao Gang United Steel successfully passed the painting certification of a major automaker. This achievement is of great significance, as it marks the first time that Bao Gang United Steel's rare earth automotive steel has smoothly passed the specialized painting certification of an automaker, formally qualifying it for mass supply. This lays a critical foundation for Bao Gang United Steel to further expand its market in the automotive industry. It is reported that in the supply chain of major automotive steel manufacturers, corrosion resistance in painting is a core entry threshold and also a common technical challenge faced by the entire industry. The automaker involved in this certification has extremely stringent detection standards for corrosion resistance, with the specified corrosion resistance cycle being twice as long as conventional standard requirements.

The US Department of Defense recently awarded a $2 million contract to ReElement Technologies to support the expansion of its rare earth element separation capacity at its facility in Marion, Indiana. The two-year grant was actually awarded on September 3, 2025, but its announcement was delayed until this week due to a government shutdown. The funding will be specifically used to purify rare earths from ore, recycled magnets, and scrap, as part of the US Department of Energy’s "Mine-to-Magnet" program, which aims to build a domestic rare earth supply chain to reduce reliance on China. ReElement employs a unique chromatography refining technology to produce high-purity rare earth oxides for use in defense and commercial permanent magnets.

MP Materials has selected Northlake, Texas, as the site for its new "10X" campus, a U.S. rare earth magnet manufacturing park. MP Materials will invest over $1.25 billion to develop what is historically the largest and most strategically significant U.S. rare earth magnet manufacturing asset. MP Materials, the largest rare earth mining company in the U.S., recently announced that it will build a large-scale rare earth magnet manufacturing campus in Northlake, Texas, with a total investment exceeding $1.25 billion.