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Inside MP Material’s rare earth magnet factory in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
MP Materials<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH \u2014 MP Materials<\/a> has the components of a great business tale.<\/p>\n A bankruptcy purchase. A startup in an unassuming warehouse behind a 7-Eleven gas station. A promising partnership.<\/p>\n Inside its 250,000-square-foot factory in Fort Worth<\/a>, executives with the Las Vegas-based rare earth magnets manufacturer took a jaunt down memory lane last week as leaders from General Motors joined them\u00a0to tout the company\u2019s latest milestone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n They\u2019ve proven they can operate from \u201cmine to magnet to motor\u201d now that MP has delivered its first magnets for the legacy car company\u2019s electric vehicles. The prototype magnets are being tested in Pontiac, Mich., for vehicles such as the Chevrolet Equinox EV, GMC Sierra EV and the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport X.<\/p>\n This moment had been a long time coming since GM invested in MP years before<\/a> the company had ever manufactured a magnet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inside MP Material’s rare earth magnet factory in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n MP Materials<\/p>\n MP chairman and CEO James Litinsky said that when he co-founded the company nearly a decade ago, many believed the rare earth minerals supply chain couldn\u2019t be restored in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really thought that we could [restore it]<\/a>, but \u2026 as we like to say, \u2018Multibillion-dollar supply chains do not move overnight,\u2019 \u201d \u00a0Litinsky said. \u201cWe would not be here without GM, without their commitment and their understanding to invest in what had to happen to build everything we\u2019ll see today.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Shilpan Amin, GM\u2019s global chief procurement and supply chain officer, said the company reassessed its supply chain coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. They shifted away from globalization and chasing the lowest-cost parts from around the world toward regionally controlling as many operations as possible to avoid external factors impacting its supply chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shilpan Amin (left), General Motors global chief procurement and supply chain officer, and MP Materials CEO James Litinsky pose for a photo inside MP\u2019s Independence factory in AllianceTexas.<\/p>\n MP Materials<\/p>\n A \u201cbuy-where-you-build strategy,\u201d Amin said.<\/p>\n A big gap in GM\u2019s chain, Amin said, was magnets and heavy rare earths.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now, metal, alloy and magnets are made in the Fort Worth factory.<\/p>\n Related: Lithium was found deep underground in northeast Texas. Now, there’s a race for who gets it<\/a><\/p>\n The celebration of finally delivering\u00a0magnets to GM called for a tour of the factory floor, giving a small group of reporters a rare glimpse inside the operations at Independence, which MP says is the world\u2019s only fully integrated rare earth metal-to-magnet manufacturing facility.<\/p>\n The plant, located in Ross Perot Jr.\u2019s\u00a0Hillwood\u2019s\u00a0AllianceTexas<\/a>, employs 350 people in its magnets division.<\/p>\n MP Materials CEO James Litinsky (center) listens to Perot Group and Hillwood Chairman Ross Perot\u00a0Jr. (left)\u00a0as he speaks to Steven\u00a0Litinsky, during the ground breaking of Las Vegas-based MP Materials in Fort Worth in April 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n File Photo\/Shafkat Anowar<\/p>\n Some employees wore bright blue lab coats with American flag patches on the sleeve, a nod \u2014 like the massive U.S. flag hanging in the factory and the red, white, and blue hard hat installation in the lobby \u2014 to MP\u2019s mission to reshore the country\u2019s rare earth supply chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The 24\/7 facility has manufactured neodymium-iron-boron magnets since 2024 with minerals from the company\u2019s mine in Mountain Pass Mine, Calif. It\u2019s the only site of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and was purchased out of bankruptcy by MP in 2017.<\/p>\n The magnets can be used in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, aerospace and defense systems, medical equipment, smartphones and more.<\/p>\n Manufacturing the magnets is an intensive, highly technical multistep process.<\/p>\n Inside MP Material\u2019s rare earth magnet factory in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n MP Materials<\/p>\n Executive vice president of magnetics Alan Lund, senior vice president of engineering Judson Marte and senior director of magnet technology Eddie Pang gave mini-science and chemistry lessons as they described what needs to happen for rare earth oxides to transform into magnets, like \u201cgrain boundary diffusion.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The rare earth oxides are converted into metal, then processed by melting, alloying, milling, pressing, sintering, machining and finishing. The final product is a magnet that MP can create \u2014 at scale \u2014 with specific grades and shapes, depending on customer needs.<\/p>\n Last week, a red Cadillac was parked on the factory floor among the rooms of tall and long blue, yellow and silver machinery. A traction motor sat on a table next to it so those on the tour group could see exactly where the magnets would go.<\/p>\n Now that MP has delivered its first magnets to GM to test in its electric vehicles, the company plans to start commercial shipments later this year.<\/p>\n Once it\u2019s operating at full capacity, the factory is expected to produce 1 million magnets each day.<\/p>\n Magnets manufactured by MP Materials.<\/p>\n MP Materials<\/p>\n \u201cActually more than a million,\u201d clarified Matt\u00a0Sloustcher, MP\u2019s executive vice president of corporate affairs.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While GM has been a long-term partner, MP Materials also secured partnerships last year with\u00a0technology company\u00a0Apple<\/a> and the Department of Defense, since\u00a0rebranded to the Department of War<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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