Florida Magnet Mine Company Secures Defense Funding to Restart Domestic Production

A rare-earth mine company, REalloys Inc., announced on March 2 that it has been awarded a $1.7 million federal defense contract to be the first company to re-establish domestic production of metals needed for national security after China banned exports in 2025.

The Florida-based company plans to design next-generation, environmentally friendly facilities to produce samarium and gadolinium metals used in stealth radars, nuclear reactors, jets, and other defense applications.

“Today, global supply of these metals remains almost entirely offshore, leaving U.S. defense and industrial users exposed to geopolitical risk, long lead times, and price volatility,” REalloys stated.

Samarium-cobalt magnets are the only magnets capable of withstanding the extreme heat of fighter jet engines and the supersonic friction of precision-guided munitions.

Gadolinium is essential for stealth radar technology and the safety control rods in nuclear reactors. The metal is also used in dyes for MRI scans and for other commercial purposes.

By establishing a domestic source for the metals, REalloys is filling a national security gap required for American defense and energy independence, according to the company.

China’s export control list prohibits the country from selling samarium and gadolinium, among other critical rare-earth elements, after April 2025, following President Donald Trump’s tariffs against the country in 2025.

Facing a shortage of the rare-earth metals, the U.S. defense industry last year turned to Solvay, one of the last remaining companies outside of China capable of producing rare earths at its French plant, according to the industry magazine Mining.

Since then, the U.S. and Europe have scrambled to create domestic supplies of the mine-to-magnets industry.

The U.S. Department of War granted the award to Teres LLC, which was acquired by PMT Critical Metals in March, a wholly owned subsidiary of REalloys.

The company plans to develop a modular, semi-continuous processing architecture that uses a low-temperature, zero-waste metallurgical reduction.

The approach doesn’t require solvent extraction plants, the company said.

The defense contract will allow the company to scale the process while completing full plant designs covering wet chemistry and reduction-to-metal operations, according to REalloys.

The contract allows for the engineering design of a 300-ton-per-year production facility built around modular reactors that can be quickly deployed, replicated, and scaled to meet steady-state and surge demand from the Department of War and commercial markets, the company said.

“By eliminating the need for large solvent extraction facilities, and the direct recycling of all byproducts, the company aims to significantly reduce capital requirements, reduce production costs by up to 50 percent, shorten deployment timelines, and enable distributed domestic production aligned with U.S. defense and industrial policy priorities,” REalloys stated.

REalloys’s stock was up by more than 20 percent on March 3 after news of the contract was published.