USA Rare Earth has selected Cherokee County, South Carolina, as the site of a new magnet manufacturing and refined metals operation, which is expected to create about 490 jobs.
The company said the approximately $1.2 billion project will significantly expand domestic production capacity for sintered neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets and the refined rare earth metals from which they are made.
To be located in the Bailey Industrial Park in Blacksburg, the facility will complement the company’s existing magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which commissioned its first commercial production line in March 2026. Together, the Stillwater and Blacksburg operations will form the magnet manufacturing centerpiece of USA Rare Earth’s integrated, mine to magnet supply chain, which spans the Round Top heavy rare earth mining and processing project in Sierra Blanca, Texas; a separation and processing facility in Wheat Ridge, Colorado; the planned acquisition of the Serra Verde mining and processing operation in Goiás, Brazil; the LCM metal and alloy facility in Cheshire, United Kingdom; and a planned metallization and alloy facility in Lacq, France.
Once online, the Blacksburg facility is targeting production capacity of 6,400 metric tons per annum (tpa) of NdFeB rare earth magnets and 5,000 tpa of strip-cast, metal and alloy. Combined with the planned expansion at the company’s Stillwater facility, USAR expects total domestic production capacity to reach 10,000 tpa of NdFeB rare earth magnets and 10,000 tpa of heavy rare earth strip-cast, metal and alloy, aligned with the company’s business plan and expected government financing. Engineering work and equipment procurement for the Blacksburg facility is underway, with site work expected to commence in the coming months and commissioning targeted to begin in 2028.
USA Rare Earth separately announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, unlocking access to up to $1.6 billion in funding under the CHIPS Program. The deals comprise up to $277 million in federal funding and up to $1.3 billion in senior secured loan capacity under the CHIPS Act, with disbursements tied to the achievement of project milestones.
