For years, the West has searched for a technological escape hatch from rare earths. Engineers have developed new motor designs, alternative magnet chemistries, and materials that reduce or even eliminate the need for some critical minerals. Every time China tightens export controls, those efforts receive another burst of attention.
They're worth pursuing.
But they don't answer the question manufacturers have to solve today.
Production capacity has become the number one scarce asset.
That realization is driving one of the most ambitious industrial projects now underway in North America.
Over the past two years, REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) has quietly assembled every major stage of the rare earth manufacturing process, from heavy rare earth feedstock and metallization to alloy production and permanent magnet manufacturing. As commercial production approaches, the company is attempting to solve a very different problem than most of its competitors.
It isn't trying to invent the next generation of magnets.
It's building the factories that will manufacture the current generation when China is no longer the default supplier.
Engineering breakthroughs and industrial production move on different timelines. New materials and motor designs must pass years of testing, qualification, and certification before they can be incorporated into aircraft, defense systems, and other mission-critical equipment. The National Academies reports that introducing a new material into a critical aerospace application can require up to 10 years, while entirely new material classes may take 20-30 years to mature into commercial use. NIST notes that qualification of materials and manufacturing processes for critical defense and aerospace applications can require millions of dollars in testing and 5-15 years of empirical validation.
By early September, the Iran war had cost the U.S. military $43.6 billion, according to the Pentagon’s latest accounting, including $28.1 billion to replace munitions already fired. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the U.S. has probably consumed between one-half and two-thirds of its inventory of certain missile-defense interceptors since June 2025 and says rebuilding those inventories will take at least five years, even with faster production.
Those replacement programs consume the same rare earth materials Washington is racing to secure. The Defense Department lists rare earth permanent magnets in Tomahawk missiles, precision-guided JDAM smart bombs, radar systems, F-35 fighters, Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines and unmanned aircraft. GAO identifies the magnets specifically in the electric motors and actuators that control guidance systems and precision-guided weapons, where their strength and ability to operate at high temperatures are difficult to replicate with lower-performance materials.
The Pentagon is now replenishing weapons on a five-year clock, while the domestic rare earth industry is still building the production capacity needed to manufacture some of their most critical components. That puts commercially qualified rare earth metals, alloys and permanent magnets directly inside the defense-production race REalloys is preparing to supply.
Milestone One: Secure the Raw Materials
Heavy rare earth feedstock is the foundation of every permanent magnet supply chain. Dysprosium and terbium remain among the most difficult rare earth elements to source outside China, yet they are essential for many of the high-temperature permanent magnets used in fighter aircraft, guided weapons, submarines, advanced radar systems and other defense platforms.
Over the past two years, REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) assembled a diversified heavy rare earth feedstock portfolio spanning multiple allied jurisdictions. The company first secured an exclusive commercial agreement with the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), providing long-term commercial access to SRC's separated heavy rare earth feedstock and establishing a framework for future metallization and downstream manufacturing collaboration.
REalloys then signed a 15-year definitive offtake agreement with Critical Metals Corp. covering 15% of Phase 1 production from the Tanbreez Project in Greenland, one of the world's largest rare earth deposits outside China.
The company's future feedstock pipeline continued expanding through preliminary strategic agreements with St George Mining in Brazil, Patriot Exploration & Mining in Montana, Ramaco Resources in Wyoming and partners in Kazakhstan, extending future supply across multiple allied jurisdictions and geological sources.
Together, those agreements establish a long-term feedstock base designed to supply the metallization, alloy production, and permanent magnet manufacturing platform REalloys is now bringing into commercial operation.
Milestone Two: Build the Metallization Platform
Separated rare earth oxides are only an intermediate product. Metallization converts them into the high-purity metals required for alloy production and permanent magnet manufacturing.
In March, the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) awarded REalloys a contract worth up to $1.7 million to design a modular metallization facility capable of producing up to 300 metric tons annually of samarium and gadolinium metals. The award supports REalloys' proprietary metallization technology and helps restore a manufacturing capability that largely disappeared from North America decades ago.
Only days later, REalloys announced plans to construct what the company says will become the largest heavy rare earth metallization facility outside China and the Western Hemisphere's first commercial-scale heavy rare earth metallization platform.
The facility is designed to produce approximately 30 tonnes of dysprosium metal and 15 tonnes of terbium metal annually.
Commercial production is expected to begin around the start of 2027, placing the facility into operation as the Pentagon's prohibition on procuring Chinese-origin rare earth permanent magnets takes effect for covered defense systems. That timing positions commercially qualified rare earth metal production to begin just as defense manufacturers are required to transition to non-Chinese supply.
Milestone Three: Complete the Manufacturing Chain
Metallization produces the high-purity rare earth metals. Those metals must still be alloyed and manufactured into permanent magnets before they become components for defense systems, electric motors, and other advanced technologies.
In July, REalloys signed a strategic letter of intent with permanent magnet manufacturer JS Link to develop one of the first fully integrated non-Chinese rare earth magnet manufacturing platforms. The agreement extends the company's manufacturing footprint beyond metals into finished permanent magnets, bringing feedstock, separation, metallization, alloy production and magnet manufacturing together under a single North American industrial strategy.
The agreement follows two years of steadily adding each stage of the supply chain. Feedstock agreements secured future raw materials. Metallization created the capability to produce high-purity rare earth metals. Permanent magnet manufacturing completes the final industrial step required to supply commercial and defense customers from a single integrated platform.
Milestone Four: Institutional Capital Takes Over
Building a mine-to-magnet manufacturing platform requires more than government support. It requires private capital capable of financing commercial production at industrial scale. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently concluded that rebuilding America's rare earth supply chain ultimately depends on attracting private investment alongside public policy.
In June, REalloys (NASDAQ: ALOY) reached that milestone, raising approximately $100 million from institutional investors to accelerate construction of its vertically integrated manufacturing platform.
The financing moves the project from development into construction, providing the capital required to transform a series of supply agreements, government contracts and manufacturing plans into operating industrial assets.
Milestone Five: Move Heavy Rare Earth Processing Onto a U.S. Military Base
The U.S. Army has chosen REalloys for exclusive negotiations to build and operate commercial heavy rare earth processing facilities at the Tooele Army Depot in Utah, creating what would become the first commercial critical minerals processing operation on a U.S. military installation.
REalloys plans to finance, construct, and operate the facilities under an Enhanced Use Lease structure, with commercial development targeted to begin in 2027 and initial operating capability expected no later than 2028.
The Tooele project would process heavy rare earth materials for U.S. government and commercial customers, including the Army, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Department of Energy, and NASA. For REalloys, it moves the company directly inside the infrastructure of the U.S. defense industrial base at the same moment the Pentagon is forcing Chinese-origin rare earth magnets out of covered procurement.
The race to secure rare earth manufacturing capacity extends well beyond the Pentagon. America's largest automakers rely on permanent magnets for electric motors and other vehicle components, exposing an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the same concentrated supply chains. Three major manufacturers illustrate both the scale of that dependence and the difficulty of replacing Chinese suppliers.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) is among the most active U.S. automakers working to secure domestic rare earth magnet supplies. The company established a long-term partnership with MP Materials to source American-made neodymium-iron-boron magnets for electric motors used across its EV portfolio, including the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Cadillac LYRIQ and GMC HUMMER EV. In August 2025, GM also signed a multiyear agreement with Texas-based Noveon Magnetics, which had already begun delivering rare earth magnets for components in GM's conventional vehicles. The agreements illustrate how GM is attempting to secure magnet supplies across both electric and combustion-engine vehicle production.
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has experienced firsthand how quickly rare earth shortages can disrupt automotive manufacturing. In May 2025, the company temporarily halted production of its Explorer SUV at its Chicago assembly plant because of supply constraints linked to China's rare earth export restrictions. Chief Executive Jim Farley subsequently acknowledged that Ford was struggling to secure sufficient magnets, describing the situation as a day-to-day challenge. With rare earth magnets used in EV traction motors and various conventional vehicle components, Ford's experience highlights how supply-chain disruptions can affect production well beyond the electric vehicle market.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) provides another example of the automotive industry's dependence on rare earth permanent magnets. Its Model 3 and Model Y powertrains have relied on high-performance magnets to achieve efficient, compact electric motors. Tesla previously reported reducing heavy rare earth consumption in these drive units by approximately 25% and has pursued next-generation motors designed to eliminate rare earth materials entirely. In September 2026, the company also highlighted a rare-earth-free motor for its Cybercab. Yet the broader transition to alternative motor technologies takes time, leaving existing vehicle platforms and manufacturing supply chains exposed to disruptions in rare earth availability.
Greenland Changes the Equation
Some of REalloys' most important assets have become more valuable without the company signing another agreement.
For years, President Trump argued that Greenland's strategic location and mineral resources were too important for the United States to ignore, even proposing that Washington acquire the island outright. Denmark and Greenland rejected that idea, but the underlying strategic objective never disappeared. Instead, it evolved into a new trilateral security agreement that expands the U.S. military presence in Greenland, blocks strategic rivals from establishing military bases, and strengthens American influence over future security and investment decisions while leaving Greenland under Danish sovereignty.
Before that agreement came about, REalloys had secured a 15-year definitive offtake agreement with Critical Metals Corp. covering 15% of Phase 1 production from the Tanbreez Project in Greenland, one of the world's largest rare earth deposits outside China.
By. Michael Kern
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