IonicRE to form magnet JV with US Strategic Metals

Market: Metals
03/09/26

Australian rare earths miner, refiner, and recycler Ionic Rare Earths (IonicRE) and manufacturer US Strategic Metals (USSM) have signed a non-binding agreement to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) and construct a recycling plant at USSM's magnet factory near Fredericktown, Missouri.

IonicRE and USSM will split equally the cost of an initial $5mn front-end engineering and design for the facility, IonicRE said on 3 September.

USSM will fund $95mn in capital expenditure for the neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and samarium-cobalt (SmCo) magnet recycling facility, while IonicRE will primarily be the technology provider for the JV. The company will issue a non-exclusive license to the JV for its recycling technology, which it has already demonstrated at its 10 t/yr pilot-scale plant in Belfast, Ireland.

The JV will also consider recycling heavy rare earths including europium, gadolinium, holmium, erbium, ytterbium, lutetium and yttrium.

The deal will supersede the memorandum of understanding signed between the two companies in November 2025. The companies expect to convert the new term sheet into a definitive agreement by the end of 2026, IonicRE said.

The company has several rare earth assets. It owns a 60pc stake in the Ugandan Makuutu rare earth project, is a 50pc partner in a Brazilian rare earths refining JV with minerals developer Viridis, and is planning to build a commercial scale 400 t/yr recycling plant in Belfast.

By Daniel Gage-Brown

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