Swedish Mining Project Under Fire Over Indigenous Land Rights

[SMM Rare Earth Outside China] US rare earth producer USA Rare Earth (USAR) has produced commercial-grade yttrium metal through its wholly-owned subsidiary Less Common Metals (LCM). It is reported that the purity of the yttrium metal produced this time is between 99-99.5%. USAR acquired LCM in September 2025 for $125 million. LCM has a metal manufacturing capacity of 1,500 mt/year and plans to increase its rapid-solidification permanent magnet strip casting capacity by 26,000 mt/year in the UK, US, and France by 2030.

European Resources has more than doubled the resource at its Korsnäs project to 15.4 million tonnes at 1.0% rare earth oxides, up from about 7.1Mt in 2024. The deposit contains roughly 137.9 million kg of rare earths, including key EV metals like neodymium and praseodymium. The discovery strengthens Europe’s push for critical mineral supply, though the project is still in early (inferred) stage.

[SMM Rare Earth Weekly Review: Rare Earth Prices Continued to Rise This Week, Market Trading Activity Increased] Pr-Nd oxide market prices, supported by raw material costs and expectations of reduced upstream supply, saw a notable increase in downstream purchasing activity. Suppliers raised their offers one after another, and low-priced supplies tightened rapidly. As of today, Pr-Nd oxide prices rose to 773,000-778,000 yuan/mt over the week.