Finding
China separates most magnet rare earths and nearly all dysprosium and terbium, so a motor built anywhere still depends on Chinese solvent-extraction plants
Rare earth ore is mined in China, the US, Australia, Myanmar and elsewhere, but separating it into individual oxides takes hundreds of solvent-extraction stages, years of process know-how and a tolerance for radioactive and acid waste. China does about 84% of magnet rare earth refining and almost all heavy rare earth separation. Lynas produced the first separated dysprosium and terbium outside China at Kuantan, Malaysia, in May 2025.
The 2025 Chinese export licenses on seven rare earths, including dysprosium and terbium, showed where the leverage sits: magnet supply to car plants in the US, Europe and India stopped within weeks even though the motors themselves are built locally. MP Materials stopped shipping Mountain Pass concentrate to China in April 2025 and, under its July 2025 agreement with the US Department of Defense, has a 10-year NdPr price floor and is adding heavy rare earth separation at Mountain Pass.
Separation is only half the gap. Oxides must be reduced to metal and cast into NdFeB alloy, a step almost entirely in China, before any magnet plant can press a part. Neo Performance Materials in Estonia and MP Materials in Fort Worth are among the few metal-and-alloy makers outside China. See Magnet Manufacturing for Motors.
Elements
Four Elements Set Magnet Performance
Neodymium and praseodymium give strength; dysprosium and terbium keep it at motor temperatures. The heavy two are scarcer, costlier and the most tightly controlled.
| Element | Role in NdFeB | Main source | Export licensed by China |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neodymium (Nd) | Main magnetic element in the Nd2Fe14B phase | Bastnaesite (Bayan Obo, Mountain Pass, Mount Weld) | No |
| Praseodymium (Pr) | Blended with Nd as NdPr; same role | Same ores as Nd | No |
| Dysprosium (Dy) | Raises coercivity so the magnet resists demagnetizing when hot | Ionic clays in southern China and Myanmar | Yes, since April 2025 |
| Terbium (Tb) | Stronger effect than Dy at lower dose; used in grain-boundary diffusion | Ionic clays | Yes, since April 2025 |
Process
Ore to Alloy in Five Steps
Each step has a different owner and a different bottleneck. Purity alone is not enough: oxygen, impurities and lot-to-lot consistency decide whether a magnet maker can qualify the material.
| Step | What happens | Choke point |
|---|---|---|
| Cracking and leaching | Concentrate is roasted with acid or caustic and dissolved | Thorium and uranium residues need licensed disposal |
| Solvent extraction | Hundreds of mixer-settler stages split elements one from another | Process know-how; heavy rare earths need the most stages |
| Precipitation and calcination | Separated elements become high-purity oxides | Purity and consistency for magnet grade |
| Metal reduction | Oxides become Nd, Pr, Dy and Tb metal by molten-salt electrolysis | Nearly all capacity in China |
| Alloy casting | Metals are strip-cast with iron and boron into NdFeB flake | Oxygen and microstructure control; few plants outside China |
Plants
Refining and Separation Plants
Outside China, separation capacity is a handful of plants, most of them still ramping.
| Operator | Plant | Location | Outputs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China Northern Rare Earth | Baotou complex | Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China | NdPr oxide and metal from Bayan Obo ore | Operating; world's largest |
| China Rare Earth Group | Ganzhou separation plants | Jiangxi and Guangdong, China | Dy and Tb oxides from ionic clays | Operating |
| Shenghe Resources | Leshan and other plants | Sichuan, China | Separated oxides and metals | Operating |
| Lynas Rare Earths | Lynas Malaysia (LAMP) | Kuantan, Malaysia | NdPr oxide; Dy and Tb oxide since 2025 | Operating |
| Lynas Rare Earths | Kalgoorlie processing plant | Western Australia | Mixed rare earth carbonate for Kuantan | Operating |
| Lynas Rare Earths | Heavy rare earth plant | Seadrift, Texas, US | Dy and Tb oxides | Planned; Lynas flagged uncertainty in 2025 |
| MP Materials | Mountain Pass | California, US | NdPr oxide; heavy rare earth separation being added | Operating |
| Energy Fuels | White Mesa Mill | Blanding, Utah, US | NdPr oxide; Dy pilot | Operating, first phase |
| Solvay | La Rochelle | France | Separated magnet rare earth oxides | Operating; expanded 2025 |
| Neo Performance Materials | Silmet | Sillamae, Estonia | Separated light rare earth oxides | Operating |
| Iluka Resources | Eneabba refinery | Western Australia | Light and heavy rare earth oxides | Under construction |
Texas
Texas Sits Downstream of Separation
Texas has a rare earth deposit, two magnet plants and a planned heavy rare earth separator, but no operating separation plant.
MP Materials makes NdFeB magnets at its Independence plant in Fort Worth from Mountain Pass NdPr and is building a second, larger magnet campus in Northlake. Noveon Magnetics in San Marcos makes sintered magnets from recycled magnet scrap. Lynas planned a heavy rare earth separation plant at Seadrift on the Gulf Coast with Department of Defense funding, but said in 2025 that the project was uncertain. In Hudspeth County near El Paso, the Round Top rare earth deposit is rich in heavy rare earths and still in development.
Sources
Sources and scope
- Scope
- REE Refining for Magnets
- Sources
- IEA Critical Minerals Outlook; USGS; Lynas, MP Materials, Energy Fuels and Iluka disclosures; MOFCOM export control notices (2025)
- Updated
- October 2026