The site could be up and running by 2028.
USA Rare Earth has selected Cherokee County, South Carolina, as the site of a new magnet manufacturing and refined metals operation, which is expected to create about 490 jobs.
The company said the approximately $1.2 billion project will significantly expand domestic production capacity for sintered neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets and the refined rare earth metals from which they are made.
To be located in the Bailey Industrial Park in Blacksburg, the facility will complement the company’s existing magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which commissioned its first commercial production line in March 2026. Together, the Stillwater and Blacksburg operations will form the magnet manufacturing centerpiece of USA Rare Earth’s integrated, mine to magnet supply chain, which spans the Round Top heavy rare earth mining and processing project in Sierra Blanca, Texas; a separation and processing facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado; the planned acquisition of the Serra Verde mining and processing operation in Goiás, Brazil; the LCM metal and alloy facility in Cheshire, United Kingdom; and a planned metallization and alloy facility in Lacq, France.
Once online, the Blacksburg facility is targeting production capacity of 6,400 metric tons per annum (tpa) of NdFeB rare earth magnets and 5,000 tpa of strip-cast, metal and alloy. Combined with the planned expansion at the company’s Stillwater facility, USAR expects total domestic production capacity to reach 10,000 tpa of NdFeB rare earth magnets and 10,000 tpa of heavy rare earth strip-cast, metal and alloy, aligned with the company’s business plan and expected government financing. Engineering work and equipment procurement for the Blacksburg facility is underway, with site work expected to commence in the coming months and commissioning targeted to begin in 2028.
https://www.designdevelopmenttoday.com/industries/manufacturing/news/22968208/usa-rare-earth-investing-12b-to-build-us-magnet-manufacturing-plant
