The 17 “rare earth” minerals that are essential to so many high-tech products today, from electric cars to magnets and military systems, aren’t literally rare, but their mining and production is. China dominates in that area, having supplanted American dominance in rare earth supplies over the last 30 years. Now, a U.S. company wants to take back a substantial piece of that market, with an eye toward creating a complete rare earth supply chain based entirely in this country. On this episode, we get the details from Jim Litinsky, chief executive officer of MP Materials. His company is operating a mine and related assets purchased from bankrupt MolyCorp Minerals LLC, at a site at Mountain Pass, California. Litinsky fills us in on MP Materials’ current operation, and long-range plan to break China’s stranglehold on rare earth supplies and their industrial applications. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.
Show notes:
A press release about MP Materials’ merger with Fortress Value Acquisition Corp.
