An Australian rare earth ore processor wants to build a plant in the United States

This week, two rare earth mineral processing companies announced the creation of a new joint venture to establish a rare earth ore processing plant in Hondo, Texas.

Lynas Corp., an Australian rare earth processor, and Blue Line Corp., a Texas-based chemicals company, have agreed on a partnership to "ensure that US companies continue to". have access to rare earth products by proposing source based. "

Rare earth minerals are found in consumer electronics, military equipment, electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. China regards rare earth metals as a potential element in the ongoing trade negotiations with the United States, as it extracts and processes most of the rare earths used in the world.

Even if a Lynas / Blue Line processing plant in Texas could mitigate some of the threat of China's dominant position in the rare earths industry, such a plant would probably take a while to get going.

At present, the only rare earth mine in the United States is in Mountain Pass, California. But Trump's administration tariffs, designed to protect US miners from competition with cheap Chinese raw materials, have actually harmed Mountain Pass because of the presence of its primary ore processing plants in China. . Mountain Pass has to ship its ore to China for processing, which opens it up to Chinese retaliation fees. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mountain Pass is currently paying a 10% tariff on rare earth ore shipments to China, which will rise to 25% on June 1st.

Lynas is one of the largest miners and rare earth transformers outside of China. However, its treatment plant in Malaysia has a controversial environmental record (the country retains the renewal of the plant's license if Lynas eliminates the radioactive waste that has accumulated there). In addition, the treatment of rare earths is generally a fairly toxic activity that requires a lot of resources. This suggests that the determination of the Hondo plant will depend primarily on the ability of both companies to comply with US environmental standards while maintaining the processed minerals more affordable than the imported rare earths.

If the Hondo plant goes from the front, companies expect it to "become the only major producer of separated, medium and heavy rare earth products, apart from China". The plant would focus on the separation of dysprosium and terbium, rather than light rare earth-based products such as neodymium and praseodymium, which are processed in the Lynas plant in Malaysia.