The West's Rare Earth Comeback Has Finally Begun

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NEW YORK, July 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Beijing is now desperately attempting to bring rare earth manufacturing back inside its own borders, exclusively. New Chinese export restrictions specifically target American plans to begin the country's first commercial production of rare earth magnet materials by 2027.  Companies mentioned in today's commentary includes:  Realloys Inc. (ALOY), NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NB), Perpetua Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: PPTA), USA Rare Earth, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAR), Comstock Inc. (NYSE American: LODE), Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE American: UEC).

To counter that move, REalloys (ALOY) is rebuilding every major stage of North America's rare earth industry. Over the past two years, the company has assembled heavy rare earth feedstock, separation, metallization, alloy production, and permanent magnet manufacturing into a single North American mine-to-magnet supply chain designed to operate independently of Chinese material. And now, the company's first commercial facilities are expected to come online in the New Year, just as the Pentagon's ban on Chinese-origin rare earth magnets takes effect, forcing defense manufacturers to secure entirely new sources of supply. Under the pressure of escalating Chinese export restrictions and the Pentagon's looming procurement ban, REalloys has become one of the focal points of America's rare earth rebuild.

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) backed the company's metallization technology, institutional investors committed approximately $100 million to accelerate construction, and the U.S. Army chose REalloys to build the first commercial heavy rare earth processing operation on a U.S. military base. This is where the front line of the rare earths war shifts from mining to manufacturing.

China's Step-By-Step Rare Earths War Plan

China's campaign is advancing one restriction at a time, with each new measure tightening Beijing's control over the global rare earth industry.

The first step was licensing. Beijing began requiring exporters to seek approval before shipping key rare earth materials abroad, including the heavy rare earths needed for high-performance magnets. That gave China control over when material leaves the country, who receives it, and how long buyers are forced to wait.

The second step was targeting specific companies. In June, China added U.S. rare earth firms, including MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, to its export control list, blocking Chinese-origin dual-use materials from reaching them, specifically. That changed the nature of the war entirely.  Now, Beijing was controlling minerals, with the added restriction of also controlling which American companies could ultimately get their hands on them.

The third step was enforcement. China created a public reporting system for suspected violations involving strategic mineral exports to close any remaining loopholes. Employees, competitors, freight companies, customs brokers, and financial service providers are all now part of the enforcement network. That means that rerouting material through third countries, disguising controlled products, or helping an end user evade restrictions is legally risky.

The fourth step was fear. Reported detentions of foreign nationals and domestic enforcement actions against Chinese exporters have made suppliers more cautious. A Chinese company that once shipped rare earth material abroad now has to consider customs scrutiny, criminal liability, end-user documentation, and political risk before accepting an order. The result is a supply chain that is becoming harder for Western companies to use by design. Even when material is technically available, the licensing, paperwork, delays, restricted-party exposure, and enforcement risk make Chinese-origin supply less reliable with every new rule.

Beijing is using rare earth controls to pull more value back inside China. If foreign manufacturers can't reliably obtain heavy rare earths such as yttrium, dysprosium or terbium, then Chinese manufacturers end up replacing foreign manufacturers as suppliers of finished products.  The American answer to this, and the REalloys solution, is definitive: Recreate the entire supply chain to bypass China, turning the tables on Beijing's restrictions, which now may prove too late to do as much damage as Beijing was hoping.

The Great American Industrial Buildout

Government support can launch a critical minerals strategy, but it can't build an industry by itself overnight.  REalloys (ALOY) reached that milestone in June, raising approximately $100 million from institutional investors to accelerate its vertically integrated mine-to-magnet platform, including 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 financing provides working capital which is expected to go towards expanding processing, metallization and downstream manufacturing as the company moves toward commercial production, marking the transition from a government-backed concept to an industrial project financed by private markets. Upstream, midstream, and downstream, REalloys has integrated everything.

Upstream: Non-China Feedstock Secured

REalloys first secured exclusive commercial agreements with the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), giving REalloys long-term access to separated heavy rare earth materials, including dysprosium and terbium oxides.

In a rapid succession of offtake deals, REalloys also 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. Additional agreements with St George Mining in Brazil, Patriot Exploration & Mining in Montana, Ramaco Resources in Wyoming, Kazakhstan-based partners and others expanded the company's future feedstock pipeline across multiple allied jurisdictions and geological sources.

Midstream: Battling China's Metallization Monopoly

For conversion into alloys, also known as "metallization", REalloys boldly goes where China has dominated for decades. Feedstock is only the first step. Those rare earth oxides must still be converted into high-purity metals before they can be alloyed and manufactured into permanent magnets.

In March, the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) awarded REalloys a contract worth up to $1.7 million to design a modular facility capable of producing up to 300 metric tons per year of samarium and gadolinium metals. The award backed REalloys' metallization technology, recognizing one of the least-developed capabilities in the American rare earth supply chain. Only days later, REalloys announced plans to build the largest heavy rare earth metallization facility outside China.

The facility is expected to produce approximately 30 tonnes of dysprosium and 15 tonnes of terbium metal annually, converting heavy rare earth oxides into the high-purity metals required for defense-grade permanent magnets. The equipment will be built and commissioned in Saskatoon in partnership with the SRC before being relocated to REalloys' operations in Euclid, Ohio, where it will supply the company's downstream alloy and magnet manufacturing platform.

Downstream: The ~$40B Permanent Magnet Industry

As the U.S. Army was negotiating direct rare earths processing for the first time at an American military base, REalloys was not growing complacent. Instead, it was forging its downstream strategy to bring this national security supply chain full circle.

Earlier this month, REalloys signed a strategic agreement with permanent magnet manufacturer JS Link to develop one of the first fully integrated non-Chinese rare earth magnet platforms. The agreement brings together feedstock, separation, metallization, alloy production, and permanent magnet manufacturing under a single North American industrial strategy.

The enormity of this supply chain is exactly why a former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, the president of GM Defense, a former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington, and one of Wall Street's senior investment bankers have all converged around REalloys.

With commercial production approaching, private capital complementing government seed funding, and defense procurement rules about to change permanently, this Rare Earths War is moving from policy papers to factory floors. For the first time in a generation, the United States is approaching the point where it can compete for the entire rare earth value chain instead of simply buying pieces of it from abroad.

Other companies to keep an eye on:

NioCorp Developments Ltd. (NASDAQ: NB) is developing the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in southeast Nebraska, which holds the highest-grade niobium resource in North America and the second-largest rare earth resource in the United States. In February 2026, NioCorp broke ground on the mine portal, an approximately $44.6 million effort to construct the main underground access point at Elk Creek — a significant pre-construction milestone that the company described as the beginning of major site activity.

NioCorp has raised more than $500 million in gross capital across 2025 and 2026, which is funding the portal construction and strengthening its application to the U.S. Export-Import Bank for proposed project debt financing.

Perpetua Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: PPTA) is developing the Stibnite Gold Project in central Idaho, which holds the only domestic reserve of antimony. In May 2026, the U.S. Export-Import Bank approved a $2.9 billion senior secured loan — the largest under EXIM's Make More in America initiative — which, combined with roughly $714 million in cash on hand, is expected to fully fund construction. The project also carries a base-case after-tax NPV of $3.5 billion at $3,250 per ounce of gold, climbing to $6.1 billion at $4,500 gold.

Early works construction commenced at Stibnite in October 2025. Critical-path construction activities for the 2026 field season began in May, including initial work on the Burntlog Route, a key infrastructure project targeting on-time delivery of antimony for U.S. defense interests.

USA Rare Earth, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAR) is building what it describes as the only fully integrated mine-to-magnet rare earth platform outside of China, with assets spanning mining, separation, metallization, alloy production, and magnet manufacturing. Its Round Top deposit in Texas holds heavy rare earth resources, and its Stillwater, Oklahoma facility commissioned its first commercial magnet production line in March 2026. In April 2026, the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Serra Verde Group for approximately $2.8 billion, adding a producing heavy rare earth operation in Brazil.

USA Rare Earth acquired Less Common Metals in late 2025, giving it one of the world's most established rare earth metal and alloy production capabilities in Cheshire, U.K. A 15-year, 100% offtake agreement for the Serra Verde operation is backed by a U.S. government-capitalized special purpose vehicle with price floors on all four magnetic rare earths.

Comstock Inc. (NYSE American: LODE) is taking a different angle on the critical minerals problem: recycling. Through its Comstock Metals subsidiary, the company is building what it describes as North America's only certified zero-landfill solar panel recycling solution, targeting the wave of end-of-life panels that is only beginning to hit the market.

The company published its first quarter 2026 results in May, reporting ongoing buildout of its metals recycling business alongside plans to monetize legacy mining assets, which it has guided could generate approximately $50 million in proceeds.

Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE American: UEC) is the largest and fastest-growing uranium company in the United States, operating two active in-situ recovery platforms — Christensen Ranch in Wyoming and Burke Hollow in Texas, the latter of which commenced production in 2026 as the first new U.S. ISR uranium mine in over a decade. But UEC's footprint now extends well beyond uranium.

UEC reported third quarter fiscal 2026 results in June, disclosing $794 million in liquidity and continued ramp-up across its production sites. The company is also advancing a uranium conversion facility in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy to address structural gaps in the domestic nuclear fuel cycle — a project that, if realized, would make UEC one of the few companies addressing the entire uranium supply chain from mine through fuel.

By. Michael Kern

Oilprice Intelligence brings you the inside view on where the next gains will come from, breaking down the market's biggest growth driver with analysis from veteran oilmen and experts. Click here to get this crucial intel for free

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