Rare Earth Stocks:
7 Pentagon-Backed Companies Beyond MP Materials

MP Materials is the most heavily backed rare earth company in the United States and the only one operating a producing rare earth mine at scale. The Mountain Pass facility in California is the only active rare earth mine in the United States, processing neodymium and praseodymium oxides essential for permanent magnets used in EV motors, wind turbines, and defense systems.

The Pentagon’s investment structure is the template against which every other government rare earth investment is measured. The $400 million preferred stock investment paired with $150 million in senior loans gives the DoD a potential 15% fully diluted ownership stake and makes the government MP’s largest shareholder. Critically, the DoD has guaranteed a 10-year price floor of $110 per kilogram for NdPr oxide and committed to purchase 100% of the magnets produced at the new 10X facility. This price floor eliminates the primary mechanism by which China has historically suppressed Western rare earth producers — flooding the market with below-cost material to destroy competitor economics.

USA Rare Earth is building the most comprehensively funded heavy rare earth mine-to-magnet supply chain in the Western world. The company’s Round Top deposit in Sierra Blanca, Texas contains 12 of the U.S. government’s top 30 most essential critical minerals, including yttrium, gallium, dysprosium, and other heavy rare earth elements currently unavailable outside China.

On June 3, 2026, USAR finalized definitive agreements with the U.S. Department of Commerce providing access to up to $1.6 billion under the CHIPS Program, comprising $277 million in direct federal funding and $1.3 billion in senior secured loan capacity. USAR will issue 16.1 million shares and approximately 17.6 million warrants to the Department of Commerce as part of the equity-swap structure. Combined with a $1.5 billion PIPE closed in January 2026, total committed capital supporting USAR’s growth plan stands at approximately $3.5 billion. The centrepiece of USAR’s domestic expansion is a $1.2 billion manufacturing facility in Cherokee County, South Carolina targeting 6,400 metric tons per year of NdFeB permanent magnets by 2030.

Vulcan Elements is a Durham, North Carolina-based magnet manufacturer founded by a former Navy officer that has secured one of the most substantial government capital commitments in the rare earth sector. The company received a $620 million direct loan from the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital and $50 million in CHIPS Act equity from the Department of Commerce. Together with ReElement Technologies, Vulcan is party to a $1.4 billion joint initiative to build a fully domestic rare earth magnet supply chain using recycled end-of-life magnets and electronic waste as feedstock.

The recycling-first approach is strategically important because it bypasses the mining permitting bottlenecks that delay conventional virgin-ore projects by years. Vulcan’s 10,000-tonne annual magnet production facility in North Carolina is designed to produce sintered permanent NdFeB magnets for defense systems, EV motors, and wind turbines using high-purity rare earth oxides supplied exclusively by ReElement Technologies under a binding multi-year supply agreement. Vulcan remains private, so institutional capital is the primary access route for investors seeking exposure.

Energy Fuels is the only company in the United States that produces both uranium and rare earth elements from the same facility. The White Mesa Mill in Utah is the only conventional uranium mill operating in the U.S. and is simultaneously the only facility in the country capable of recovering and separating rare earth elements from uranium ore processing streams. This dual-processing capability makes Energy Fuels uniquely positioned within the government’s critical mineral supply chain strategy.

The company has secured a significant commercial agreement with Astron Corporation to process monazite sand from Astron’s Donald Project in Australia, producing mixed rare earth carbonate at White Mesa for further processing by Neo Performance Materials in Europe. This establishes an allied-nation rare earth supply chain that is entirely independent of Chinese processing infrastructure. Energy Fuels has also established a partnership with the Brazilian rare earth company Brazil Minerals for processing monazite from Brazilian deposits at White Mesa. The combination of uranium production revenues and growing rare earth processing income creates a diversified revenue base that pure-play rare earth developers cannot match.

ReElement Technologies is the most technologically differentiated company in this list. Rather than conventional solvent extraction, which requires large capital-intensive facilities and generates significant chemical waste, ReElement uses a patented chromatographic separation process licensed from Purdue University and adapted from pharmaceutical insulin purification. The process operates at costs competitive with Chinese producers and generates zero hazardous waste, addressing the primary environmental and economic barrier that has made rare earth processing unviable in the Western world for decades.

ReElement received an $80 million direct loan from the Office of Strategic Capital matched by private capital, and is party to a $700 million conditional loan commitment with Vulcan Elements through a joint federal initiative. A binding multi-year supply agreement commits ReElement to deliver magnet-grade high-purity rare earth oxides — neodymium, NdPr, and dysprosium — exclusively to Vulcan Elements. The company is expanding its Noblesville, Indiana pilot facility and scaling its Marion, Indiana Supersite. A target public listing as a standalone critical mineral refining company is anticipated in late 2026.

REalloys is the least well-known company on this list and arguably the most strategically important for defense-critical applications. On March 2, 2026, the Defense Logistics Agency awarded a contract to Terves LLC, now part of the REalloys platform through its PMT Critical Metals subsidiary, to scale next-generation metallothermal processes for samarium and gadolinium metals. These are not mainstream rare earth elements — they are specialized metals embedded in the military’s most demanding systems. Samarium-cobalt permanent magnets operate at extreme temperatures where neodymium magnets fail, making them essential for jet engine actuators, missile guidance systems, and space-based communications hardware.

The modular design of REalloys’ processing platform differs fundamentally from conventional rare earth facilities. Traditional solvent extraction plants require enormous infrastructure investments of $500 million or more. REalloys’ approach uses a modular semi-continuous processing architecture capable of producing approximately 300 tonnes per year of samarium and gadolinium metals in a fraction of the physical footprint. The company has also secured a strategic alliance and offtake commitment from America’s highest-grade rare earth deposit, announced April 1, 2026, and appointed the former Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense as Chair of its Advisory Board.

Lynas Rare Earths is the largest rare earth producer outside China and the only company in the world operating a significant rare earth mine and separation facility outside the Chinese supply chain at scale. The Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, combined with the LAMP processing facility in Malaysia, produces neodymium, praseodymium, and lanthanum at commercial volumes that no other Western company can match. On March 16, 2026, Lynas signed a $96 million supply and development agreement with the Pentagon to produce strategic magnet-feedstock minerals including samarium for the U.S. defense industrial base.

The Lynas investment thesis differs from the purely domestic companies above. As an Australian-listed company, it provides exposure to the allied-nation rare earth supply chain that the U.S. government is building as an alternative to Chinese dependence. The Pentagon agreement provides a guaranteed revenue base for magnet-grade rare earth feedstock while Lynas expands its processing capabilities in both Malaysia and at its new Texas facility, being built with prior U.S. government support. For investors seeking rare earth exposure with lower execution risk than early-stage domestic developers, Lynas represents the most operationally proven option in this list.