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    AML US$2m defence magnet contract: supply chain and design notes for engineers

    May 20, 2026|

    Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

    AML US$2m defence magnet contract: supply chain and design notes for engineers

    First reported on MINING.com

    30 Second Briefing

    Advanced Magnet Lab has secured a US$2 million, two-year Defense Logistics Agency contract to qualify domestically produced high‑grade sintered NdFeB PM‑Wire magnets, including defence‑grade compositions such as N48SH and N35EH. The Florida firm will develop alloying, supply chain management and advanced manufacturing routes to scale permanent magnet production using its PM‑Wire process, which is designed to fit existing magnet‑making lines. AML is also progressing SmFeN, MnBi, anisotropic NdFeB and (Mischmetal‑Nd)FeB magnets, working with Phoenix Tailings, Ionic Rare Earths and Momentum to reduce critical rare earth content and improve material traceability.

    Technical Brief

    • Funding targets domestic production routes for sintered permanent magnets serving both defence and commercial markets.
    • Process aims to simplify magnet fabrication while widening design freedom and performance tuning options.
    • AML is concurrently developing samarium iron nitride (SmFeN) and manganese bismuth (MnBi) magnet chemistries.
    • Anisotropic NdFeB and (Mischmetal‑Nd)FeB variants are being engineered to reduce critical rare earth usage.
    • Input traceability for (Mischmetal‑Nd)FeB magnets is a stated requirement for end‑use customers.

    Our Take

    Advanced Magnet Lab also features in coverage of Project Vault, the planned $12 billion US critical minerals stockpile, where permanent magnet manufacturing is flagged as the unresolved bottleneck—this DLA award suggests AML is emerging as one of the few domestic candidates to plug that gap for heavy rare earth and samarium-based systems.

    In our database of Materials pieces, most US critical minerals items focus on upstream mining or stockpiling, so a Florida-based manufacturer like AML working on samarium–cobalt and samarium iron nitride magnets stands out as a rare downstream processing and component play within the US defence supply chain.

    The reopened $500 million DLA cobalt tender in late 2025 shows the agency is already active in securing feedstocks, and pairing that with a smaller, targeted magnet-manufacturing contract to AML signals a strategy of locking in both raw materials (cobalt, rare earths) and finished components for defence applications.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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