Lynas flags uncertainty over Texas rare earths plant, posts profit slump
Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths warned of considerable uncertainty over the future of its heavy rare earths processing plant in Texas and also reported a steeper-than-expected drop in its annual profit on Thursday.
Lynas, the world’s largest rare earths producer outside China, said it is in negotiations with the US Department of Defence (DoD) to reach a mutually acceptable offtake agreement for production from the Texas-based Seadrift facility.
“While there can be no certainty that offtake agreements will be agreed, any offtake agreements would need to be on commercial terms acceptable to Lynas,” the miner said.
Lynas has been developing the facility under a contract with the US DoD, with plans to begin operations in fiscal 2026. However, the company indicated that construction of the plant may not move forward.
“We are big supporters of continued investment in development of outside-China’s supply chains,” CEO Amanda Lacaze told an investor call.
“But just remember … Lynas is the lynchpin of (the) outside-China supply chain, and it is important that policy development is done in such a way that continues to protect that, because, as I said before, development of new plants can be long and uncertain,” she said.
Her comments came after the US government last month agreed a multibillion dollar deal to become the top shareholder in Lynas’ biggest rival outside China, MP Materials, provide a floor price for its key rare earth product, and lend it $150 million to expand in heavy rare earths separation.
Lynas also wants to be involved with new rare earth magnet makers in the US and other countries outside China and is open to taking an equity stake.
“There are seven magnet projects coming to market in the US, many of which actually have some form of government funding, which de-risks them,” Lacaze said, adding there are probably more magnet projects in the US than in the rest of the world combined.
“We want to be able to participate either on an operational or a supply or an equity basis in this part of the supply chain,” she said.
The miner last month signed an agreement with Korea’s JS Link to develop a magnet facility in Malaysia where it has processing operations.
Lynas’ net profit after tax came in at A$8 million ($5.20 million) for the year ended June 30, a sharp decline from an A$84.5 million reported a year earlier.
The annual figure also missed the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$30.4 million.
Lynas attributed the drop in profit to depreciation costs from its Kalgoorlie and Mt. Weld facility expansion, noting that production at Kalgoorlie fell short of nameplate capacity.
It expects its fiscal 2026 capital expenditure to be around A$160 million.
The miner announced an A$750 million equity raising to “pursue new growth opportunities”. The new shares will be issued at A$13.25 apiece, a discount of 10% to Lynas’ close on August 27.
Its shares were placed on a trading halt ahead of the equity raising.
($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars)
(By Shivangi Lahiri and Shruti Agarwal; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sonali Paul)
Critical Metals, Ucore ink 10-year offtake deal to supply rare earths to US plant
Critical Metals Corp. (Nasdaq: CRML) has signed a ten-year offtake agreement to supply heavy rare earth concentrate Ucore Rare Metal’s US processing facility.
Under the terms, Critical Metals expects to supply up to 10,000 metric tons of the concentrate annually from its Tanbreez project in Greenland, ranked one of the biggest rare earth projects in the world.
The deal connects the massive rare earth project with Ucore’s Department of Defense (DoD) funded processing facility in Louisiana—a key step toward reducing US reliance on foreign sources for heavy rare earths.
The concentrate, the company said, will be providing critical feedstock for high-purity rare earth oxides used in advanced tech and defense applications.
After hydro-metallurgical processing, the concentrate will be used as feedstock for Ucore’s rare earth element processing facility, which broke ground in May, in Alexandria, Louisiana and at Ucore’s facility in Kingston, Ontario.
The Louisiana facility will produce high-purity rare earth oxides from mixed rare earth carbonates or oxides, which Critical Metals expects to produce at Tanbreez. It aims to produce 2,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of high-purity rare earth oxides next year, with the capacity expected to be scaled up to 7,500 tpa in 2028, the company said.
“Critical Metals Corp’s Tanbreez offers tremendous opportunities for Ucore given the significant concentration of heavy rare earths it contains, which are essential for our processing facility in Louisiana, and our downstream partners,” Ucore CEO Pat Ryan said in a statement.
“Both Critical Metals Corp and Ucore share a vision to lessen China’s grip of the rare earth ecosystem in the West, and we look forward to our partnership, positioning us both to meet the growing demand for rare earths while addressing national security challenges.”
“Securing this offtake provides Critical Metals Corp both with our first buyer and the flexibility to supply other US based rare earth facilities in the future, given the immense size of our Tanbreez deposit,” Critical Metals CEO Tony Sage added.
The deal was brokered by GreenMet, a Washington-based advisory firm acting as a conduit between private capital, government and critical minerals industry.
In an email to MINING.com, GreenMet CEO Drew Horn called the agreement “a landmark achievement and a powerful example of strategic partnerships building a resilient, domestic supply chain.”
