WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2021) Production of permanent magnets made with rare earths that are needed to make electric cars - first developed in the United States but no longer manufactured in the country - would be revived under a strategic collaboration announced by General Motors (GM) and the owner of a rare-earth mine in the state of California.
"Under the long-term agreement, MP Materials will supply US-sourced and manufactured rare earth materials, alloy and finished magnets for the electric motors used in the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV and more than a dozen models using GM's Ultium Platform, with a gradual production ramp that begins in 2023," GM said in a press release on Thursday.
MP Materials owns and operates the Mountain Pass rare earth mine and processing facility in California, the only active and scaled rare earth production site in the United States. Rare earth materials sourced from Mountain Pass will be transformed into metal, neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeb)� alloy and magnets at a new production facility MP Materials today announced it will build in the state of Texas, the release said.
Although development of permanent magnets began in the US, there is virtually no domestic capacity to produce NdFeB magnets today. This strategic collaboration seeks to accelerate the restoration of the US rare earth supply chain at commercial scale, the release added.
"Restoring the full rare earth supply chain to the United States at scale would not be possible without US manufacturers like GM recognizing the strategic consequence and acting with conviction," MP Materials CEO James Litinsky said in the release.
GM also announced a separate deal with the German-based Vacuumschmelze (VAC), the largest producer of permanent magnets in the Western Hemisphere.
Like MP Materials, VAC also plans to build a new magnet factory in the US that will only used materials mined in the US, with media reports suggesting that VAC will most likely purchase its rare earths from LP.
China accounts for up to 70 percent of the global supply of rare earths and up to 85 percent of global processing capabilities from domestic sources and Chinese owned mines in Africa, according to media reports.
As a result makers of computers, smartphones, electric cars, windmills and sophisticated defense systems now need to source rare-earths from China or a limited number of producers outside the United States.
