REEtec

A privately held Norwegian rare earth separation company, with LKAB as its largest shareholder, that runs a demonstration plant at Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn, and has built its first industrial plant there, designed for 720 t/yr of NdPr oxide using a proprietary separation process.

Points to check

Facts from the sources on this page that a reader should weigh before relying on the company's own figures.

Vital Metals, the named feed supplier, terminated its offtake effective December 26, 2023; REEtec disputes the termination.
Production was first targeted for H2 2024; an April 2025 press report put readiness for production in 2026.
No public source reports commercial NdPr oxide output from Plant 1 as of October 2026.
Volumes and value of the Schaeffler contract have not been disclosed, and other customers have not been named.
REEtec's website news page was last updated in March 2023.

At a glance

Founded: 2008 — Founded in 2008 by Scatec Innovation, with co-founders including Alf Bjørseth and Bård Bergfald; pilot unit, then a demonstration plant at Herøya from 2019. The current parent, REEtec Holding AS, was registered in Oslo on November 1, 2021.
Headquarters: Oslo, Norway (production unit at Herøya Industrial Park, Porsgrunn)
Ownership: Private. LKAB largest shareholder (33.7%) and Scatec Innovation 19.6% as of August 2024 (Magnetics Magazine); Nysnø Klimainvesteringer (Norwegian state), Mercuria, TechMet and the founders also hold shares (November 2022 release).
Stage: Developing. Plant 1 (720 t/yr NdPr oxide nameplate) is funded and built, with commissioning since August 2024, but no public source reports commercial output; original feed contract was terminated in 2023.
Listing: Private.
Revenue: Not publicly disclosed. This company does not publish revenue and no named third party has published an estimate of it.

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
Herøya Plant 1 separated NdPr oxide	720 t/yr NdPr oxide (nameplate); production first targeted for H2 2024	Delayed	Aug 2024
Herøya demonstration plant	Industrial-scale demonstration unit; capacity not published	Pilot scale	Aug 2024
Herøya Plant 2 separated oxides	Capacity not published; construction planned for 2026, availability from 2027, partly fed by LKAB concentrate	Announced	Aug 2024

Narrative

REEtec was founded in 2008 by Scatec Innovation to develop a proprietary process for separating rare earth elements, with co-founders including REC founder Alf Bjørseth. After a pilot unit, it has operated an industrial-scale demonstration plant at Herøya Industrial Park in Porsgrunn, Norway, since 2019. In April 2022 Schaeffler signed a five-year contract to buy rare earth oxides from REEtec from 2024; volumes and value were not disclosed. On November 8, 2022 REEtec closed a NOK 1.2 billion (about EUR 115 million) equity round to build its first industrial plant at Herøya. LKAB invested NOK 400 million and became the largest shareholder, holding 33.7% by August 2024 according to Magnetics Magazine, with Scatec Innovation at 19.6% and Nysnø, Mercuria and TechMet among the other investors. The plant's nameplate capacity is 720 t/yr of NdPr oxide, which the company described as about 5% of estimated EU demand, and REEtec said in 2022 that 80% of the plant's NdPr was sold. Bilfinger was the EPCM contractor. Feed was to be rare earth carbonate from Vital Metals' Nechalacho project in Canada, but Vital terminated that offtake agreement effective December 26, 2023, after the parties failed to agree amended terms; REEtec disputed the termination and reserved its rights. Production was first targeted for the second half of 2024. Start-up commissioning began in August 2024, when the company said the plant would be ready for raw material at the beginning of 2025. A Norwegian trade press report in April 2025 said the plant would be ready for production in 2026. As of October 2026 no public source reports commercial output or a replacement feed agreement. A second Herøya plant, using concentrate from LKAB's planned apatite processing in Luleå, Sweden, was planned for construction in 2026 with availability from 2027; no public update on that plant has been found. The parent company's share capital has continued to rise through registered share issues, most recently in February 2026.

Where public sources disagree

LKAB stake: Magnetics Magazine (Aug 21, 2024) gives LKAB 33.7%; LKAB's own release says 'largest shareholder' without a percentage, and a Nordic News headline (Nov 8, 2022) says LKAB bought 'the majority'.
Capacity unit: the November 2022 release, TechMet and Magnetics Magazine give 720 t/yr of NdPr oxide; Bilfinger and the Herøya Industrial Park company page describe 720 t/yr of 'magnetic metals' or 'magnet metals'.
Plant status: Magnetics Magazine (Aug 2024) reports start-up commissioning had begun, while REEtec's own website still says construction of the first industrial plant is under way.
Feedstock: Nysnø's investment page still names Vital Metals as REEtec's feed supplier, while Vital Metals' half-year report (Mar 14, 2024) says the offtake terminated on December 26, 2023 (REEtec disputes the termination).

Sources

REEtec separation plant to start up soon — Magnetics Magazine (2024-08-21)
Vital Metals half-year report (REEtec offtake terminated) — Vital Metals / ASX (2024-03-14)
LKAB becomes largest owner in REEtec — LKAB (2022-11-08)
REEtec raises NOK 1,200 million — Scatec Innovation (2022-11-08)
REEtec press release, Porsgrunn — REEtec via TechMet (2022-11-08)
EU support gives hope for separation at Herøya — Teknisk Ukeblad (2025-04-02)
'Større enn det norske oljeeventyret' — Herøya Industripark (2026-03-17)
Schaeffler signs European rare earth deal — MINING.COM / Reuters (2022-04-19)
Norwegian-Swedish cooperation on rare earth metals — High North News (2022-11-10)
Bilfinger EPCM for REEtec separation facility — Bilfinger (2023-01-01)
REEtec company website — REEtec (2026-10-16)
REEtec Holding AS registry notices — Oljelandet (Brønnøysund data) (2026-06-03)
REEtec Holding AS company data — Webagent (Brønnøysund data) (2026-10-16)
TechMet portfolio: REEtec — TechMet (2026-10-16)
Nysnø case: REEtec — Nysnø Klimainvesteringer (2026-03-01)

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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