The "closing loop moment" of the American rare earth industry chain? Rare earth new force USA Rare Earth (USAR.US) officially acquires LCM.

USA Rare Earth (USAR.US), a rare earth new force from the United States, announced on Wednesday that its announcement of the acquisition of Less Common Metals (LCM) has received formal regulatory approval from the British Secretary of State, driving the stock to rise by over 3% in pre-market trading. The American rare earth company stated that with the necessary antitrust approval now obtained, the acquisition is expected to be completed immediately, meeting its goal of the fourth quarter of the 2025 calendar year. For the Trump administration, which looks forward to American rare earth independence, the swallowing of Less Common Metals by USA Rare Earth is a milestone event in the rare earth industry. This means that USA Rare Earth will soon have the ability to "from mining to refining to magnets." With the addition of LCM to its portfolio, the long-awaited "rare earth industry chain loop" for the Trump administration is theoretically achieved, making this new rare earth force a potential pillar in the American rare earth autonomous system. USA Rare Earth emphasized in a statement that this acquisition marks a significant acceleration of its rare earth full industry chain strategy from "magnet-to-mine," and it aims to create an end-to-end American pure domestic rare earth supply chain. As a result of this transaction, Less Common Metals (LCM) will be able to continue expanding its production capacity and serving its global customer base with a wide range of rare earth and key metal and alloy products, while supplying the Stillwater large magnet factory in Oklahoma with neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) metal and tape-cast alloy. The metals and alloys provided by LCM are essential core materials for manufacturing the world's most advanced magnets, semiconductor advanced processes, and aerospace components. The company offers exclusive metal and alloy products to customers in the defense, automotive, electric vehicle, industrial, and technology sectors in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan. By acquiring LCM, the rare earth new force USA Rare Earth will have a "rare earth full industry chain." The acquisition of Less Common Metals (LCM) by USA Rare Earth (USAR) fundamentally means that the most scarce metals and alloys in the United States, as well as the most scarce in the entire Western world, have been completely bought back. This completes the chain from "mine to magnet" - not just mining and magnets, but truly mastering the key link from oxide to metal, to NdFeB alloy. LCM is a rare earth metal and alloy factory in the UK, positioned as the most mature rare earth metal and alloy producer outside of China globally. It is the only player in the West that produces light and heavy rare earth permanent magnet metals and alloys on a large scale, and is able to tape-cast NdFeB alloys. In simple terms, the products provided by LCM are the "food" for high-performance sintered NdFeB permanent magnets. Without high-quality metals and tape-cast alloys, the magnet link cannot start. The standard process for sintered NdFeB magnets is to use tape-cast NdFeB alloy as raw material; LCM itself started with vacuum induction melting + tape casting and is the only enterprise in the West that commercially produces tape-cast NdFeB alloys on a large scale (about 1,400 tons per year). The current plan for USAR's magnet factory in Stillwater, Oklahoma is to produce 5,000 tons of sintered neodymium-iron-boron (Neo) magnets per year, which is currently in the trial production process and will supply industries such as defense, automotive, and wind power in the future; LCM will provide NdFeB metal and tape-cast alloy to this factory and bring its established defense and automotive customers and government relationships in the USAR system. Therefore, this acquisition is a milestone for USA Rare Earth, and even the American rare earth industry chain, as it upgrades USA Rare Earth from having a mine and magnet factory to truly mastering the complete rare earth industry chain from oxide to metal and alloy, and finally to downstream formed magnets, especially capturing the most scarce and difficult to replicate metal and alloy middle. However, it is worth noting that MP Materials' "Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine" is still the only large rare earth mine currently producing in the United States. The upstream rare earth mine of USA Rare Earth is still in the development and trial production process, and USA Rare Earth's rare earth mines are more about "planning + early production capacity." Why is rare earth so important for the United States? Rare earths refer to a group of 17 metals that are widely used in the chip industry chain, as well as core manufacturing industries such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, aerospace engines, and defense and military manufacturing. Rare earths have strong magnetic properties and are crucial for advanced technology industries ranging from electric vehicles and consumer electronics to missile systems. As the power struggle between China and the United States intensifies, the importance of rare earths in the American technological and military industries is driving Western countries, led by the United States, to seek new local supplies on a record scale to significantly reduce their dependence on China for rare earth mine extraction and deep processing. Statistics show that China holds about 60%-70% of the global rare earth mining market share; more critically, China's share further rises to 85%-90%+ in refining and metal/magnet links. When it comes to neodymium praseodymium oxide (NdPr) used to manufacture high-strength permanent magnets, China is considered to hold the key to the world's rare earths, and in recent years, China's share in this field has almost reached a monopoly on a global scale. This is why during the trade standoff between China and the United States in the first half of the year, when China imposed rare earth restrictions, the Trump administration's tough stance with additional tariffs on China appeared to soften significantly, as virtually all of America's rare earth imports come from the Chinese market. Since the beginning of this year, the rivalry between China and the United States in chips and rare earths has intensified. The Trump administration has unprecedentedly supported the expansion of American rare earth ore and rare earth magnet production, striving to achieve "complete independence of the American domestic rare earth supply system." It is understood that the Trump administration not only chose to invest in MP Materials, but also partnered with American tech giants such as Apple Inc. to support MP Materials with large-scale orders. Since going public in 2020, MP Materials, which has spent most of its time at historic lows, has experienced an unprecedented bull market curve, with its stock price soaring 300% and setting new record highs this year.