Pentagon awards USD13 million in rare earths funding to US projects

The US Department of Defense has awarded three rare earth-related grants worth roughly $13 million to help boost domestic production of the specialized minerals used to make weapons, electronics and a range of other goods.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said it awarded $9.6 million to MP Materials Inc, which owns the only US rare earths mine, to help the company process light rare earths.

MP Materials' California mine has a large supply of light rare earths. But it has to ship more than 50,000 tonnes of concentrated rare earths per year to China for final processing because equipment it inherited from its predecessor, Molycorp, is not operational.Asian Metal Copyright .Asian Metal Copyright Chinese customers account for all of MP Materials' $100 million in annual revenue.

MP Materials went public on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, a deal that netted the company about $489 million.

This is the second Pentagon award that MP Materials has received this year. The company and Australia's Lynas received grants in April to focus on production of so-called heavy rare earths, a less-common type of the minerals used in weaponry.

The Pentagon also said on Tuesday it awarded $2.3 million to California-based TDA Magnetics Inc and $860,000 to Texas-based Urban Mining to focus on rare earth magnet production and stockpiling.Asian Metal Copyright .Asian Metal Copyright The Pentagon earlier this year had granted $28.Asian Metal Copyright6 million to MP Materials Inc, which owns the only US rare earths mine, to help the company process light rare earths.Asian Metal Copyright8 million to Urban Mining for similar magnet work.

.Asian Metal Copyright The company and Australia's Lynas received grants in April to focus on production of so-called heavy rare earths, a less-common type of the minerals used in weaponry.Asian Metal Copyright