Permanent magnets in the critical minerals chain: flowsheet lessons for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Project Vault, a new $12 billion US government stockpile, targets critical minerals but leaves permanent magnet manufacturing—especially neodymium-based and other rare earth magnets—as the key unresolved vulnerability in decoupling from Chinese supply. Wade Senti, CEO of Advanced Magnet Lab, argues for a market-led, innovation-first strategy that diversifies rare earth feedstocks and sources while backing alternative magnet chemistries such as Samarium Iron Nitride (SmFeN) and Manganese Bismuth (MnBi). For mining and processing projects, this implies demand for flexible mine-to-magnet flowsheets, equipment-intensive magnet plants, and closer integration with downstream OEMs.
Technical Brief
- Permanent magnet manufacture is identified as the last unaddressed link between mined rare earths and defence/EV end-use.
- US magnet firms are already co-designing alloys with OEMs, tailoring compositions to specific motor and actuator duty cycles.
- Light and heavy rare earth elements are blended to tune coercivity and temperature stability for long-life, high-load applications.
- Supply-chain strategy calls for diversified rare earth feedstocks by element mix and by country of origin to maximise optionality.
- Innovation scope spans separation, alloying, powder processing and sintering—each stage a potential bottleneck for non-Chinese supply.
- Market-led pricing from magnet buyers is proposed as the primary signal for stockpile composition and offtake planning.
Our Take
Neodymium and heavy rare earths appear in only a small subset of the 1,585 keyword-matched pieces, signalling that Advanced Magnet Lab and Project Vault sit in a relatively specialised niche of our mining coverage compared with bulk commodities like iron ore or copper.
With the USA and China both central to this op-ed and a 50% tariff on foreign steel and aluminium noted, the piece aligns with other critical-mineral items in our database where trade measures are indirectly reshaping project economics for downstream technologies such as permanent magnets rather than just raw ore exports.
Florida rarely features in our 1,029 Mining stories for advanced materials, so a magnet-focused initiative there suggests US developers are starting to disperse critical-mineral processing and R&D beyond traditional hubs like the Mountain West and Midwest industrial belt.
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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