Weekly, on rare-earth magnets and the supply chains behind them. https://peculiarmaterials.com/digest/ 2026-09-22T05:42:53Z David Mayburyhttps://peculiarmaterials.com/ Copyright Peculiar Materials LLC https://peculiarmaterials.com/digest/2026-09-21/ 2026-09-21T14:00:00Z 2026-09-22T14:00:00Z David Maybury

The first issue written in the week it covers, and it is mostly Japan - not because Japan had a busy week, but because a pass through the Japanese-language record turned up a funding program that English-language coverage has never once mentioned. • Japan's magnet subsidies have been paying for Thai, Philippine and Vietnamese capacity • METI has published what it considers a serious magnet plant, and it is smaller than you would guess • METI puts Japan's heavy rare-earth import dependence on China at 100 percent • Japanese trading houses are rationing rare earths, and the trade has named a month • Lynas is now committed to sending 75 percent of its medium and heavy rare earths to Japan • USA Rare Earth told the SEC where Stillwater and Round Top stand, and left one word out • A 3,750 metric ton a year metal and alloy plant at Lacq that the atlas did not have at all • JL MAG's first half, from the filing rather than from the press release • Arafura extends a wind-turbine offtake - up to 500 metric tons a year, counterparty undisclosed • Korea Zinc's Project Crucible clears its environmental review, and it is not a rare-earth project

https://peculiarmaterials.com/digest/2026-09-14/ 2026-09-14T14:00:00Z 2026-09-14T14:00:00Z David Maybury

A US$1.2 billion magnet plant broke ground this week, and almost every account of it carries a capacity figure the company did not claim. The difference is one unbuilt expansion in another state - and with it, whether this is the biggest thing announced in America or the second biggest. • USA Rare Earth breaks ground at Blacksburg - and the 10,000 figure is not this plant • Solvay confirms the OneIM talks in three sentences and no numbers • Cyclic opens America's first automated magnet recovery line, and 25,000 metric tons is the input • BNDES money for Viridis, and it is not project finance for the mine • Brazilian Rare Earths commissions a pilot and gets someone else to pay for most of the next one • Narva ships its first commercial magnets, a year after the ribbon was cut • Another US$4.6 million goes at samarium and gadolinium, which is the quiet crisis • Viridis names an engineering contractor and pays it not to wait for a decision

https://peculiarmaterials.com/digest/2026-09-07/ 2026-09-07T14:00:00Z 2026-09-07T14:00:00Z David Maybury

USA Rare Earth closed on Serra Verde this week, which makes it the second American magnet company with a mine of its own - and the first whose mine is neither domestic nor bastnaesite. The completion release gives a tonnage for total rare earth oxide and no split at all, and the split is the entire question. • USA Rare Earth completes the Serra Verde combination • Chinese suppliers have started refusing US shipments, and no ministry has announced anything • US$750 million of interest in a Louisiana plant of unstated size • Meteoric's half-year, and a Caldeira number that is wrong by a factor of twenty-three • Mkango publishes a capacity map, and a cash balance that does not reach it • Lynas confirms it was in takeover talks • Neo hands Sarfartoq to Greenland Mines and keeps a call on the concentrate • Viridis orders a filter press, which is a schedule signal and not a capacity one

https://peculiarmaterials.com/digest/2026-08-31/ 2026-08-31T14:00:00Z 2026-08-31T14:00:00Z David Maybury

Everyone led with record revenue. The durable fact in Lynas's full year is a ten-year Malaysian operating license, and the most useful number is a 63 percent cost overrun on the one thing nobody else can build. • The license is the news, not the tonnages • Heavy separation costs 63 percent more than budgeted, because the equipment is only made in China • Energy Fuels closes on 1,300 metric tons a year of alloy in Korea, going to 3,600 • Neo and Carester close a loop between Europe's only heavy separation plant and its only new magnet plant • Mkango buys a German magnet recycler for €8 million and 345 metric tons of feed • Cyclic Materials raises US$75 million, and it is not the round you are thinking of • St George signs a Brazilian processing-center protocol, and the headline number is not in it • A startup comes out of stealth claiming all seventeen rare earths in one pass

https://peculiarmaterials.com/digest/2026-08-24/ 2026-08-24T14:00:00Z 2026-08-24T14:00:00Z David Maybury

A US government vehicle closed this week carrying what the company says are the first price floors ever put under dysprosium and terbium - except that the floors themselves are not published. That shape, a real thing with the load-bearing number withheld, is most of this week. • The first price floors on dysprosium and terbium, and nobody will say what they are • Iluka's numbers are in the slide deck and not in the announcement • Energy Fuels gets terbium through the gate that stops everyone • Ucore runs the same columns on two completely different ores • ReElement clears the air permit for all four Marion lines, samarium included • Victory Metals books a heavy rare-earth reserve, and the product is wet dirt • Xiamen Tungsten's first half, and a numeral worth double-checking • Greenland books 40,700 metric tons of contained NdPr, which is not 40,700 metric tons of anything