MP Materials

Last updated

MP Materials Corp.
Type Public company
Industry
Founded2017;6 years ago (2017)
Founders
  • James Litinsky
  • Michael Rosenthal
Headquarters Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
James Litinsky
(Executive Chairman & CEO)
Michael Rosenthal
(COO)
Products Rare earths in concentrate
Production output
38,500 tonnes [1]  (2020)
OwnerJHL Capital Group, QVT Financial LP, James Litinsky, Shenghe Resources [2]
Number of employees
350 (2021 [3] )
Website mpmaterials.com
Footnotes /references
[4] [5]

MP Materials Corp. is an American rare-earth materials company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. MP Materials owns and operates the Mountain Pass mine, the only operating rare earth mine and processing facility in the United States. [6] MP Materials focuses its production on Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr), a rare earth material used in high-strength permanent magnets that power the traction motors found in electric vehicles, robotics, wind turbines, drones and other advanced motion technologies. [7] MP Materials is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "MP". As of December 2021, JHL Capital Group, QVT Financial and CEO James Litinsky were the company's three largest shareholders, with about 7.7% of the company owned by Shenghe Resources, a Chinese rare earth business located in Sichuan. [8]

Contents

History

In 2015, Molycorp, the previous owners of the Mountain Pass mine, filed for bankruptcy. At the time, it was the only U.S. producer of rare earth elements. [9] While in bankruptcy, Secure Natural Resources (SNR), a company owned by Molycorp's creditors, including JHL Capital Group, gained control of the mine's mineral rights. [10] In June 2017, the Mountain Pass mine was purchased at auction for $20.5 million by a new entity called MP Mine Operations LLC (MPMO). [11] MPMO was a consortium formed principally by JHL Capital Group, a Chicago-based investment firm led by James Litinsky, along with QVT Financial LP and Shenghe Resources. [3] Shenghe, a Sichuan China rare earth company, held a minority, non-voting interest. [12] At the time, Mountain Pass was in a state of "care and maintenance" and had only eight employees according to Litinsky. [13]

Following the asset acquisitions and formation of the entities that became MP Materials, the company restarted operations at Mountain Pass. On July 15, 2020, the company announced a reverse takeover whereby MPMO and SNR would be merged with Fortress Value Acquisition Corporation to become a public company under the name MP Materials Corp. The transaction, which closed on November 17, 2020, raised $545 million. [14] On November 18, 2020, MP Materials began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MP".

In December 2021, MP Materials signed a long-term agreement with General Motors to provide neodymium-iron-boron magnets for use in GM's electric vehicle motors. [15] As part of the contract, MP Materials also agreed to provide alloy and finished magnets to GM for its electric vehicles [16] and to open a new factory located in Fort Worth, Texas to produce the magnets. [17]

As of December 2021, JHL Capital Group, QVT Financial, and CEO James Litinsky were the company's three largest shareholders, and about 7.7% of the company was owned by Shenghe Resources, a Chinese company. [8] [18] [19] [20] [21] Apart from institutions, other investors own 18%. [18]

Mountain Pass mine

Mountain Pass mine Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine & Processing Facility.jpg
Mountain Pass mine

Discovered in 1949 in San Bernardino County, California, Mountain Pass mine consists of a bastnäsite ore-body with significant concentrations of rare earth elements. [22] The mine once supplied most of the world's rare earth elements. [23] Mountain Pass is the only operational rare earth mining and processing facility in the United States. [6] The expected Mountain Pass mine life is approximately 24 years. [24]

MP Materials produced 28,000 tonnes of rare-earth oxide equivalent from Mountain Pass in 2019, and 38,500 tonnes in 2020, or more than 15% of global production. [1] As of late 2020, Shenghe Resources was the sole purchaser of MP Material's rare earth concentrate. [25] [26]

U.S. government contracts

In July 2020, the United States Department of Defense issued a preliminary contract to MP Materials intended to restore domestic heavy rare earth production and separation capabilities to the United States. [27] [28] In November 2020, the United States Department of Defense awarded MP Materials $9.6 million as part of a government effort to increase domestic production of rare earth materials. [29] [30]

In 2021, MP Materials received $3 million in funding from the United States Department of Energy to design and study the feasibility of a system to produce rare earth oxides and metals from coal by-products in collaboration with the University of Kentucky. [3] [31]

In February 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden announced at a press conference that the United States Department of Defense was investing $35 million into MP Materials as part of an effort to spur domestic rare earth production in the United States. [32] [33] Biden said that this move was designed to reduce America's reliance on rare earth minerals imported from other countries. [34] [35] The Biden administration said the federal funding is earmarked to assist the company to develop a new commercial facility for “heavy” rare earth mineral processing. [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rare-earth element</span> Any of the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium

The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths or, in context, rare-earth oxides, and sometimes the lanthanides, are a set of 17 nearly indistinguishable lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals. Compounds containing rare earths have diverse applications in electrical and electronic components, lasers, glass, magnetic materials, and industrial processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neodymium magnet</span> Strongest type of permanent magnet from an alloy of neodymium, iron and boron

A neodymium magnet (also known as NdFeB, NIB or Neo magnet) is a permanent magnet made from an alloy of neodymium, iron, and boron to form the Nd2Fe14B tetragonal crystalline structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Mountain Range</span> Mountain range in California

The Clark Mountain Range is located in southeastern California, north of Interstate 15 and the community of Mountain Pass. The range stretches approximately 15 miles (24 km) in a southwest-northeasterly direction, beginning in the Mojave National Preserve, and ending near Stateline Pass, about one mile (1.6 km) from the Nevada border. Clark Mountain, at 7,929 feet above sea level, is the principal peak of the range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivanpah Lake</span> Lake in the state of California, United States

Ivanpah Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California on the border of California and Nevada. Nestled in the Ivanpah Valley near Primm on Interstate 15, the 13-square-mile (34 km2) lake is almost entirely within California. At the north edge of the lake lie the Nevada Welcome Center (closed) and a California Lottery retailer. It is a popular place for land sailing and kite buggying.

Xu Guangxian, also known as Kwang-hsien Hsu, was a Chinese chemist. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Science who is respected for his contributions in both theoretical and experimental chemistry. He is a former president of the Chinese Chemical Society, and is known as "The Father of Chinese Rare Earths Chemistry".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China Minmetals</span> Chinese metal and minerals company

China Minmetals Corporation is a Chinese metals and mineral trading company headquartered in Beijing. It is a state-owned corporation under direct supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). China Minmetals is engaged in the production and trading of metals and minerals, including copper, aluminum, tungsten, tin, antimony, lead, zinc, and nickel.

The Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility, owned by MP Materials, is an open-pit mine of rare-earth elements on the south flank of the Clark Mountain Range in California, 53 miles (85 km) southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2020 the mine supplied 15.8% of the world's rare-earth production. It is the only rare-earth mining and processing facility in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Rare Earths</span> Government-owned corporation

IREL (India) Limited is an Indian Public Sector Undertaking based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has a specialization in mining and refining of rare earth metals.

Molycorp Inc. was an American mining corporation headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The corporation, which was formerly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, owned the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California. It filed for bankruptcy in June 2015 after changing competitive circumstances, declining prices on output and a 2014 restructuring. It was purchased by its largest creditor Oaktree Capital Management and was reorganized as Neo Performance Materials.

The rare earth industry in China is a large industry. Rare earths are a group of elements on the periodic table with similar properties. Rare earth metals are used to manufacture everything from electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, consumer electronics and other clean energy technologies. The rare earths cause improved system performance when for example electric battery terminal LiMn2O4 cathodes are doped with them, and it is known that some EVs use lithium-ion batteries such as these. Tesla automobiles "currently uses an lithium-nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) chemistry, while lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) chemistries are common across the rest of the EV industry." Vehicle "manufacturers are keen to reduce reliance on rare earths, which like cobalt, suffers from highly concentrated supply and unpredictable pricing, with China holding a virtual global monopoly in primary supply and processing." Leading battery manufacturer Samsung SDI uses this technology for its phone and portable computer batteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynas</span> Australian rare-earths mining company

Lynas Rare Earths, Ltd. is an Australian rare-earths mining company with two major operations: a mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld in Western Australia, and the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Kuantan, Malaysia. The company was founded in the 1990s and is headquartered in Perth, Western Australia.

Energy Transition Minerals Ltd is an ASX-listed company focused on the exploration, development and financing of minerals that are critical to a low carbon future. The company’s current projects include the Kvanefjeld, located in Greenland, and Villasrubias, located in Spain.

NPM Silmet AS is a rare-earth processor located in Sillamäe, Estonia. It is a subsidiary of Neo Performance Materials.

American Elements is a global manufacturer and distributor of advanced materials with an over 35,000-page online product catalog and compendium of information on the chemical elements, advanced materials, and high technology applications. The company's headquarters and educational programs are based in Los Angeles, California. Its research and production facilities are located in Salt Lake City, Utah; Monterrey, Mexico; Baotou, China; and Manchester, UK.

The Thacker Pass Lithium Mine is a lithium clay mining development project in Humboldt County, Nevada, which is the largest known lithium deposit in the US and one of the largest in the world. There has been significant exploration of Thacker Pass since 2007. The Bureau of Land Management issued a Record of Decision approving development of the mine in January 2021. Construction began in March 2023 after an emergency appeal was denied by the court. The project site would cover 18,000 acres (7,300 ha), with less than 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of that being mined, on a site 21 miles (34 km) west-northwest of Orovada, Nevada within the McDermitt Caldera. The mine is a project of Lithium Nevada, LLC - a wholly owned subsidiary of Lithium Americas Corp, whose largest shareholder is the world's largest lithium mining company, Chinese Ganfeng Lithium. At full capacity it would produce 66,000 tons annually, equivalent to 25% of the current (2021) demand for lithium globally, which is expected to triple over the next five years. Development of the mine is driven by increasing demand for lithium used in electric vehicle batteries and grid storage of intermittently generated electricity from sources such as solar power or wind power. In late January 2023, car giant General Motors announced it would invest $650M in the mine project, giving GM exclusive access to the first phase of production.

The rare earths trade dispute, between China on one side and several countries on the other, was over China's export restrictions on rare earth elements as well as tungsten and molybdenum. Rare earth metals are used to make lithium ion (li-on) batteries, top of the line neodymium magnets, defense products and many electronics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Round Top Mountain</span>

Round Top Mountain is a mountain located at the western end of the Sierra Blanca area in Hudspeth County, Texas near the town of Sierra Blanca. The area includes the Finlay Mountains, Triple Hill, and Sierra Blanca quadrangles as well as parts of the Fort Quitman and McNary quadrangles. Round Top Mountain is known for containing deposits of beryllium as well as the largest deposit of heavy rare-earth elements in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Permanent magnet motor</span> Type of electric motor

A permanent magnet motor is a type of electric motor that uses permanent magnets for the field excitation and a wound armature. The permanent magnets can either be stationary or rotating; interior or exterior to the armature for a radial flux machine or layered with the armature for an axial flux topology. The schematic shows a permanent magnet motor with stationary magnets outside of a brushed armature.

Executive Order 13959 is a U.S. Presidential Executive Order signed on November 12, 2020, by President Donald Trump. Its title, and stated goal, is "Addressing the Threat From Securities Investments That Finance Communist Chinese Military Companies."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental policy of the Joe Biden administration</span> The US federal executives anti-pollution measures

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References

  1. 1 2 Zhou, Jackie (May 9, 2021). "US seeks to challenge China on rare-earth elements, key ingredients in Biden's energy plan". Fox Business. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Could The MP Materials Corp. (NYSE:MP) Ownership Structure Tell Us Something Useful?". Simply Wall Street. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Hudson, Sabrina (May 29, 2021). "Mine near Las Vegas produces much of world's rare earth materials". Las Vegas Review Journal. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  4. ↑ "MP Materials Corp 2020 Form 8-K Quarterly Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  5. ↑ "MP Materials Corp 2020 Q3 Summary" (Press release). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  6. 1 2 "The Californian Rare Earths Mine Caught Between Trump and China". Bloomberg News. September 27, 2018. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  7. ↑ "MP Materials CEO says rare magnets supplier is a 'picks-and-shovels play' for EV market". CNBC. December 16, 2020. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  8. 1 2 "MP MATERIALS CORP. (MP)". MarketScreener. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  9. ↑ Miller, John W.; Zheng, Anjie (June 25, 2015). "Molycorp Files for Bankruptcy Protection". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  10. ↑ Peg Brickley (February 1, 2017). "California's Mountain Pass Mine to be Auctioned in Bankruptcy". The Wall Street Journal . ISSN   0099-9660. Wikidata   Q114387203 . Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  11. ↑ Peg Brickley (June 23, 2017). "Mountain Pass Mine Approved for Sale to JHL, QVT, Shenghe". The Wall Street Journal . ISSN   0099-9660. Wikidata   Q114387011 . Retrieved October 3, 2022.
  12. ↑ Topf, Andrew (June 16, 2017). "Mountain Pass sells for $20.5 million". Mining.com. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  13. ↑ "James Litinsky CEO of MP Materials on the Company's NYSE Debut". TD Ameritrade Network. November 18, 2020.
  14. ↑ Gupta, Ruchi (November 19, 2020). "Is MP Materials Stock a Good Investment?". Market Realist. Retrieved August 9, 2021.
  15. ↑ Root, Al (December 9, 2021). "GM Keeps Building Up Its EV Supply Chain. Here's the Latest Deal". Barrons. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  16. ↑ Stankiewicz, Kevin (December 9, 2021). "MP Materials CEO says GM partnership key to building EV supply chain in U.S." CNBC. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  17. ↑ "GM reaches supply deals for electric vehicle motor magnets". AP. December 9, 2021. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  18. 1 2 "MP Materials Corp. (MP)". Market Screener. Annecy, France: Surperperformance. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  19. ↑ Xie, John (December 31, 2020). "California Mine Becomes Key Part of Push to Revive US Rare Earths Processing". Voice of America . Archived from the original on December 31, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  20. ↑ Hui, Mary (February 5, 2021). "The US is taking steps towards breaking China's rare earths monopoly". Quartz . Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Shenghe Resources Holding Co. Ltd: Shareholders Board Members Managers and Company Profile". MarketScreener. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  22. ↑ "Rare Earth Elements—Critical Resources for High Technology". US Geological Survey. May 17, 2005. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  23. ↑ "The collapse of American rare earth mining — and lessons learned". Defense News. November 12, 2019.
  24. ↑ "MP Materials Corp 2020 SEC Form S1". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  25. ↑ Hui, Mary (February 19, 2021). "A Chinese rare earths giant is building international alliances worldwide". Quartz . Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  26. ↑ "MP Materials Corp Form S-1 Registration Statement". Security and Exchange Commission. December 9, 2020. p. 9. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  27. ↑ Scheyder, Ernest (July 22, 2020). "Pentagon resumes rare earths funding program after review". Reuters. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  28. ↑ "MP Materials Corp 2020 Q3 Investor Q&A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  29. ↑ "U.S. rare earths miner MP Materials profit surges in first results post listing". Reuters. November 23, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  30. ↑ "China May Ban Rare Earth Tech Exports on Security Concerns". Bloomberg News. February 19, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  31. ↑ "DOE awards #3M to MP Materials for project to extract rare earths from fossil fuel waste streams". Green Car Congress. May 17, 2021. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  32. ↑ Scheyder, Ernest; Holland, Steve (February 22, 2022). "Biden voices support for new U.S. mines, if they don't repeat past sins". Reuters. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
  33. 1 2 Ronayne, Kathleen (February 22, 2022). "Biden wants to cut into China's electric battery dominance". AP. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  34. ↑ Gangitano, Alex (February 22, 2022). "Biden says mineral supply chain actions will help end foreign reliance". The Hill. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  35. ↑ Coppola, Gabrielle (February 26, 2022). "Biden Bets on U.S. Battery Independence". Bloomberg. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
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