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.
- Stage
- Mature. Rare earth metals and strip-cast alloy in the UK since 1992, with about 2,500 t/yr of capacity.
- Listing
- Nasdaq: USAR
Listed through its parent or partner. Owned by USA Rare Earth since 18 Nov 2025.
Investor relations - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total rare earth and critical mineral metal and alloy capacity, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK | approximately 2,500 t/yr, across light and heavy rare earth metals, magnet alloys, hydrogen storage alloys and other specialty materials | Operating | Sep 2026 |
| First commercial-grade yttrium metal (2N-2N5, 99%-99.5% purity) | no tonnage published | Operating | 2026-04-15 |
| Strip-cast alloy caster (historical) | 600 kg per batch | Historical | 2012 |
| Purification and remelting of recycled magnet alloy, REEmelt project — described as the only operation in the United Kingdom able to carry out this type of remelting at scale | no tonnage published | Pilot scale | Oct 2024 |
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. Fastmarkets independently corroborates approximately 2,500 metric tons per year of total operating alloy capacity as of September 2026; a previously stated 3,000 metric ton run-rate target for the fourth quarter of 2026 did not reappear in USA Rare Earth's Q2 2026 outlook. LCM reported its first commercial-grade yttrium metal pour in April 2026, and a historical 600-kilogram-per-batch strip caster dates to 2012. USA Rare Earth separately announced a metal-and-alloy plant at Lacq, France in January 2026, through a distinct subsidiary and facility profiled on its own page.
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.
- LCM's role differs between two published recycled-magnet collaborations. In the chain with Ionic Rare Earths and Vacuumschmelze it reduces oxides that Ionic recovered, which is metallization rather than recovery; in the REEmelt project it purifies and remelts recycled magnet alloy directly. Public sources do not reconcile the two, and whether LCM should be described as a recycler turns on which of them is taken as representative.
Latest reports
| Period | Published | Report |
|---|---|---|
| Q2 2026 (quarter to 30 Jun 2026) | 2026-08-10 | USA Rare Earth Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results |
| Q1 2026 (quarter to 31 Mar 2026) | 2026-05-13 | USA Rare Earth Reports First Quarter 2026 Financial Results |
| Q4 and FY 2025 (year to 31 Dec 2025) | 2026-03-30 | USA Rare Earth Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Financial Results |
| Q3 2025 (quarter to 30 Sep 2025) | 2025-11-06 | USA Rare Earth Reports Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results |
Across these reports
USA Rare Earth moved from a pre-revenue company to one with LCM metals revenue of about US$5.7-5.8M per quarter, commissioned Stillwater Phase 1a in March 2026 as targeted, and raised cash from US$257.6M to US$1.53B while operating losses widened. It closed the Serra Verde acquisition on 3 Sep 2026 and announced Blacksburg, SC (commissioning 2028) and a France expansion for LCM, while the Round Top study timetable moved to publication in Q1 2027.
| Measure | What the reports show |
|---|---|
| Revenue (US$, from LCM after its acquisition closed in November 2025) | Nil before the LCM acquisition → US$1.6M (FY2025) → US$5.7M (Q1 26) → US$5.8M (Q2 26, vs nil in Q2 25). |
| Operating loss (quarterly, US$) | US$15.9M (Q3 25) → US$36.7M (Q1 26) → US$46.3M (Q2 26, vs US$8.8M in Q2 25); FY2025 US$59.5M. |
| Cash and cash equivalents | US$257.6M (30 Sep 25) → US$359.9M (31 Dec 25) → US$1.75B (31 Mar 26) → US$1,530.1M (30 Jun 26). |
| Capital expenditures | US$37.4M (FY2025) → US$38.6M (Q1 26) → US$108.4M (H1 26). |
| Stillwater, OK magnet manufacturing capacity (capacity, t/yr) | Phase 1a commissioned March 2026; targeted 600 t/yr run-rate by end of Q4 2026 and 1,200 t/yr total with Phase 1b in Q1 2027 (Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 reports); 600 t/yr Q4 2026 target restated in Q2 2026 report. No magnet production or LCM metal/alloy volumes disclosed. |
Stated dates
| Target | First stated | Now | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commissioning of commercial-scale magnet production at Stillwater, OK (Phase 1a) | Q1 2026 (Q3 2025 report, 2025-11-06) | achieved March 2026 (announced 2026-03-26; Q4 2025 report) | met |
| Stillwater run-rate magnet capacity of 600 t/yr | end of Q4 2026 (Q4 2025 report, 2026-03-30) | Q4 2026 (Q2 2026 report) | not yet due |
| Round Top, TX study completion | Pre-Feasibility Study in 2H 2026 (Q3 2025 report, 2025-11-06) | Definitive Feasibility Study completion Q4 2026, publication Q1 2027 (Q1 and Q2 2026 reports); commercial production targeted late 2028 (Q4 2025 report) | moved later |
| Close of ~US$2.8B acquisition of Serra Verde Group (Brazil) | Q3 2026 (definitive agreement release, 2026-04-20) | achieved 3 Sep 2026 (Q2 2026 report of 2026-08-10 had said 'by the end of August') | met |
| Blacksburg, SC facility (6,400 t/yr NdFeB magnets; 5,000 t/yr strip-cast, metal and alloy) commissioning | commissioning 'targeted to begin in 2028' (Q2 2026 report, 2026-08-10) | 2028 | not yet due |
Figures are as the company reported them, linked to each report. This summarizes what changed between reports; it is not a view on the company or its shares.
Fact checks from the digest
Claims made about this company that the weekly digest has put against this atlas, newest first. The verdict and the working are here in full; the issue each came from is for subscribers.
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A 3,750 metric ton a year metal and alloy plant at Lacq that the atlas did not have at all
My claim, so it gets the same treatment. Two near misses, both on our own atlas, and neither one closes the gap. Neo's Silmet in Estonia separates to oxide at 3,200 t/yr nameplate — and carries no metal or alloy line. LCM's own Ellesmere Port makes 2,500 t/yr of metal and alloy — and does no separation. Each site does one of the two steps.
Lacq would do both on one piece of ground. Japan already does, at Shin-Etsu's Takefu works, which is why the claim carries the awkward “outside Japan” rather than being tidier.
Sources
- Company website — Less Common Metals Ltd. (2026-09)
- Investor relations — USA Rare Earth, Inc. (2026-09)
- Industry coverage — Fastmarkets (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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