The United States' first rare earth permanent magnet recycling facility is coming to Fredericktown, Missouri.
The magnet recycling facility is being developed at an existing site owned by U.S. Strategic Metals (U.S.S.M.), a Clayton-based processing and mining company.
Rare earth magnets are found in items including iPhones, electric vehicles, wind turbines and more. The facility will recycle magnets that are at the end of their lives or are production scrap.
Mike Hollomon, U.S.S.M. Chief Commercial Officer, said the magnets will be supplied from Australia's Ionic Rare Earths Ltd., who already developed a magnet recycling facility in Belfast, Ireland.
"The idea is, since we have a permanent site on private land with everything we need to do that process in the United States," Hollomon said, "we're going to do a copy-paste of that technology and bring it to Missouri."
He called the production of these recycled magnets 'extremely important' for the U.S.
"We've off-shored so much of our metal processing, mining, recycling and we just don't have access to these metals," Hollomon said. "Our supply chain is extremely vulnerable."
The facility is expected to create 50 to 60 new jobs and open between late 2027 and early 2028.
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Rare earth magnets are found in iPhones, electric vehicles, wind turbines and more.
Rare earth magnets are found in iPhones, electric vehicles, wind turbines and more.
