Shares of USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ: USAR), which looks to develop a domestic rare earth magnet supply chain, surged by 23% late on Thursday and another 14% in pre-trade on Friday after the company’s chief executive said USA Rare Earth is in “close communication” with the White House.
The Trump Administration is increasingly looking to have a direct equity involvement in America’s critical minerals supply chain, in the race to close the gap with the world’s dominant holder of supply of critical metals and rare earth elements, China.
Earlier this week, the Administration, via the Department of Energy, struck a deal with Lithium Americas Corp to obtain a 5% equity stake in the company developing the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada.
In July, U.S. rare earths miner and magnet producer MP Materials Corp entered into a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to accelerate the build-out of an end-to-end U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain and reduce foreign dependency.
Now USA Rare Earth is in communication with the White House, CEO Barbara Humpton told CNBC on Thursday.
Asked by CNBC’s Morgan Brennan if USA Rare Earth is interested in an agreement with the Administrations similar to the recently announced deals, Humpton said “We are in close communication with the administration.”
“This is a field where it will not be a zero sum game,” the executive told CNBC, commenting on the rare earth supply chain. “It’s going to take a lot of players to build out this marketplace.”
USA Rare Earth holds the Round Top deposit in West Texas which hosts 15 of the 17 rare earth elements, including all heavy rare earth elements, as well as other high-tech metals such as gallium, hafnium, zirconium, beryllium, and lithium.
Long-term, the company intends to use the ore processed from this deposit in its magnet sintered neo magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is currently planned to go commercial in the first half of 2026. USA Rare Earth also plans to supply other industries, including the U.S. defense industry, with its critical minerals.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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