USA Rare Earth Accelerates Plans for Commercial Rare Earth Production

Glass jars containing metal Palladium (left) and rare earth metal Terbium inside the storage room of Tradium, a company specializing in trading rare earths, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on Nov. 4, 2025. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFPUSA Rare Earth (USAR) said on Dec. 10 that promising results from an early-stage pilot program have led to accelerated plans to enter commercial production of rare earth minerals at its Round Top mine in West Texas.The Stillwater, Oklahoma-based miner said successful ongoing testing for heavy rare-earth elements dysprosium and terbium—essential elements used to make high-performance permanent magnets used in smartphones, electric vehicle motors, and wind turbines—advanced operations at the company’s Hydromet demonstration plant in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The pilot facility is expected to begin running in 2026 and will operate five solvent-extraction circuits targeting dysprosium, terbium, hafnium, and zirconium.