Insights › Rare-earth magnet supply chain atlas › Less Common Metals Ltd. (LCM)
United Kingdom
Less Common Metals Ltd. (LCM)
Rare-earth metal and alloy producer, supplying strip-cast NdFeB alloy and rare-earth metals (including yttrium) to magnet manufacturers; not a magnet maker itself.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1992 — Operated in Birkenhead from 1997 before moving to its current Hooton Park site near Ellesmere Port in 2012. Acquired by Indian Ocean Rare Metals in 2015, then by USA Rare Earth, Inc. (announced September 29, 2025; closed November 18, 2025).
- Headquarters
- Ellesmere Port, England, United Kingdom
- Ownership
- Wholly owned subsidiary of USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR) since the acquisition closed on November 18, 2025.
- Revenue
- Not publicly disclosed. This company does not publish revenue and no named third party has published an estimate of it.
USA Rare Earth's consolidated FY2025 revenue ($1.643 million) is not attributable to LCM specifically; LCM was only consolidated into USARE's results from the November 18, 2025 close, and no LCM-specific revenue breakout has been disclosed in SEC filings.
Capacity
Each date below links to the document the figure came from. A capacity figure with no source is not on this page.
| What | Figure | Status | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rare-earth metal alloy (run rate target) | 3,000 metric tons per year | Announced | 2026-Q4 |
| Commercial-grade yttrium metal (first pour) | first commercial batch | Commissioned | Apr 2026 |
| Strip-cast alloy caster (historical) | 600 kg per batch | Historical | 2012 |
| Planned metal-alloy facility, Lacq, France | approximately 3,750 t/yr | Announced | 2026 |
Narrative
Less Common Metals Ltd. (LCM) is a UK rare-earth metal and alloy producer that began operations in 1992, moved to Birkenhead in 1997, and has operated at its current Hooton Park site near Ellesmere Port since 2012. It was acquired by Indian Ocean Rare Metals in 2015 and, more recently, by USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR), a deal announced September 29, 2025 and closed November 18, 2025; this profile treats LCM as a distinct entity from USA Rare Earth's own separately profiled U.S. operations. LCM supplies strip-cast NdFeB alloy and rare-earth metals, including yttrium, to magnet manufacturers rather than making finished magnets itself. The company has set a target run rate of 3,000 metric tons per year of metal alloy for the fourth quarter of 2026, and reported its first commercial-grade yttrium metal pour in April 2026; a historical 600-kilogram-per-batch strip caster dates to 2012. USA Rare Earth has also announced plans for a metal-alloy facility in Lacq, France, targeting roughly 3,750 tons per year, though this is sourced only to company materials.
Where public sources disagree
- The acquisition price is reported differently across sources: approximately $100 million in cash plus 6.74 million shares in one source, versus an all-in value of approximately $220 million in another.
- A claim that LCM is the "only" scaled rare-earth metallizer outside China is disputed by other sources naming ASM, MP Materials, Phoenix Tailings, and Santoku as comparable operators.
Sources
- Company website — Less Common Metals Ltd. (2026-09)
- Investor relations — USA Rare Earth, Inc. (2026-09)
How this page is sourced
Everything here comes from public sources — company filings, annual reports, exchange announcements, government releases and trade press. Every figure is linked to the document it came from and carries the date that document was published, because a capacity number without a date is not a fact, it is a rumor with a decimal point.
What is deliberately absent: material nonpublic information. I have spent more than two decades in this industry and a good deal of what I know about these companies I learned under NDA. Those obligations do not expire and they do not bend for a website. Nothing I have been told in confidence appears here in any form, and nothing on this page — or missing from it — should be read as a signal about what I know privately. I hold NDAs absolutely. It is the reason clients tell me things.
Judgment is the other thing left out on purpose. This page reports what has been published and who published it. Whether a target is credible, whether a ramp will hold, whether a capacity figure survives contact with the plant behind it — that is the work I do for clients, and it does not belong in a free reference page.
Where public sources disagree, I say so rather than picking a winner. Where a figure has not been published, the field says so rather than carrying an estimate. An empty field is information too.
Public filings tell you what a company has said. Whether it holds up is a different question, and the one I get hired to answer.
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