{"id":38311,"date":"2025-11-19T16:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=38311"},"modified":"2025-11-19T16:00:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:00:35","slug":"us-and-saudi-arabia-reach-deal-for-rare-earths-facility-in-gulf-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=38311","title":{"rendered":"US and Saudi Arabia reach deal for rare earths facility in Gulf kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=1c4987a0-3fdb-4ed3-97ab-4d5e9b8d7ac8\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Rare earths group MP Materials is partnering with the US military and Saudi Arabia\u2019s state mining company to build a processing facility in the Gulf kingdom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MP, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/79b1693a-0788-4dc6-b431-027695534c62\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">which struck a lucrative deal with Washington this year<\/a>, said on Wednesday it has entered a partnership with the US Department of War and Saudi state-backed mining company Maaden. The groups plan to develop a rare earths refinery that will process raw materials sourced from Saudi Arabia and other regions, and supply US and Saudi manufacturing and defence industries.<\/p>\n<p>The metals are crucial to the production of permanent magnets that are used in a broad swath of industries, from defence to energy and technology.\u00a0But their production is dominated by China, and western nations are now racing to build out alternative supply chains. <\/p>\n<p>It comes as President Donald Trump rolled out a lavish Washington <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/f9edefef-9352-4e16-9200-501d9a70c719\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">welcome for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman<\/a> this week. The MP deal is among a series of agreements being hashed out by the two countries during a US-Saudi business forum held in the American capital on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The US government this year took an equity stake in Nevada-based MP and guaranteed a minimum price for some of the rare earths it produces, in an unusual deal that surprised the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of Wednesday\u2019s deal, MP Materials and the US government combined will hold up to a 49 per cent stake in the new joint venture, while Maaden will own the controlling stake of \u201cno less than\u201d 51 per cent, the companies said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On the US side, the Department of War \u2014 rather than MP \u2014 will provide the financing, the details of which were not disclosed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The facility is expected to produce both heavy and light rare earths, the supply chains for both of which are dominated by China.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Heavy rare earths are especially hard to source outside China, which has wielded control over the materials this year by imposing a series of export limits that sent industry in the west scrambling.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The main output from MP Materials\u2019 mine in the US is light rare earths. The company is developing a heavy rare earth separation facility in the US that it will feed with material sourced from its own mine and from third parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia has identified mining as one of the main sectors the country seeks to grow as part of wider plans to diversify the kingdom\u2019s economy beyond oil. The government also hopes that growth in mining would help provide materials for other industries they are trying to build, including electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n<p>Maaden, which is majority-owned by the kingdom\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, told the Financial Times in September that it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3d2937d8-8340-45ba-87eb-5f891038cee1\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">pursuing an aggressive growth strategy<\/a> to develop the kingdom\u2019s untapped mining resources, estimated by authorities to be worth some $2.5tn.\u00a0The company is also keen to explore opportunities overseas through its international investment arm Manara.<\/p>\n<p>MP chief executive James Litinsky said: \u201cBy combining MP\u2019s technical expertise with the strategic vision of the US Department of War and Maaden\u2019s capabilities and scale, the pieces are in place to fundamentally strengthen and diversify the supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/1c4987a0-3fdb-4ed3-97ab-4d5e9b8d7ac8\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}