US Strategic Metals and Ionic Rare Earths Plan Missouri Magnet Recycling Plant

According to company reports, US Strategic Metals (USSM) and Ionic Rare Earths USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ionic Rare Earths, have signed a non-binding term sheet to establish a 50-50 joint venture to develop rare earth permanent magnet recycling capacity in Missouri. The proposed facilities would be built at USSM’s permitted processing site near Fredericktown and initially recycle neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and samarium-cobalt (SmCo) magnets and magnet scrap.

The companies intend to invest $100 million in the initial facilities. USSM would provide $95 million, while the two partners would make a combined $5 million equity contribution, split equally. The initial funding is also intended to complete front-end engineering design and accelerate demonstration-scale magnet recycling. Any additional capital required would be funded by the joint venture.

USSM’s site covers 1,750 acres in the Southeast Missouri mining district and is already fully permitted. The company is developing the site as a multi-metallic processing campus for materials including cobalt, antimony, nickel, lithium, copper and rare earth elements. Locating magnet recycling facilities within the existing site would allow the proposed project to be integrated with planned rare earth processing operations rather than developed as a separate greenfield facility.

Under the proposed structure, each company would hold a 50% interest in the joint venture. A five-member board would oversee the business, with three members appointed by USSM and two by Ionic Rare Earths USA. Ionic USA would chair the Technical Operations Committee and take primary responsibility for technical, operational and commercial matters, including feedstock procurement.

Ionic Technologies, Ionic Rare Earths’ Belfast-based subsidiary, is expected to provide a non-exclusive technology licence covering magnets, magnet scrap and other compounds containing heavy rare earths. The joint venture also plans to assess the recovery of additional heavy rare earth elements, including europium, gadolinium, holmium, erbium, thulium, lutetium and yttrium.

USSM Chief Executive Officer Stacy W. Hastie said the agreement would advance the company’s plans to establish domestic supply chains for critical minerals and heavy rare earths. He said Ionic Rare Earths had demonstrated its magnet recycling technology and that USSM’s permitted Missouri site provided the infrastructure needed to pursue commercial-scale deployment.

Ionic Rare Earths Executive Chairman Brett Lynch said the United States had the industrial and financial capacity to support development of rare earth recycling technology. He described the proposed Missouri facility as a step toward establishing a U.S.-based rare earth supply chain.

The project also falls within the broader U.S.-Australia cooperation on critical minerals and rare earths following the framework signed by the two governments in October 2025. The companies are targeting completion of definitive joint venture agreements by the end of 2026. The project remains subject to those agreements, capital contributions and other conditions, and the parties said there is no certainty that the proposed arrangements will proceed.

Source: US Strategic Metals

SUNSHINE Spotlight: USSM and Ionic Rare Earths are planning a $100 million Missouri joint venture to establish NdFeB and SmCo magnet recycling capacity within an existing critical-minerals processing site.