USA Rare Earth Inc. (USAR.US), an emerging player in the U.S. rare earth sector, announced on Wednesday that its acquisition of Less Common Metals (LCM) has received formal regulatory approval from the UK Secretary of State. The news drove the company's stock up over 3% in pre-market trading.

With the sole required antitrust clearance now secured, USA Rare Earth expects the deal to close imminently, aligning with its previously stated target of Q4 2025. This acquisition is a landmark event for U.S. rare earth independence, a priority for the Trump administration, as it equips USA Rare Earth with capabilities spanning "mining to refining to magnet production."

The integration of LCM completes a critical piece of the puzzle for the U.S. rare earth supply chain, theoretically achieving the Trump administration's vision of a "closed-loop" domestic rare earth ecosystem. USA Rare Earth emphasized in a statement that the deal significantly accelerates its "magnet-to-mine" strategy, paving the way for an end-to-end, fully localized U.S. rare earth supply chain.

As part of the transaction, LCM will continue expanding its production capacity, serving its global clientele with a broad portfolio of rare earth and critical metal alloys. It will also supply neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) metals and strip-cast alloys to USA Rare Earth's upcoming magnet factory in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

LCM's metals and alloys are essential for manufacturing advanced magnets, semiconductor processes, and aerospace components. The company serves defense, automotive, EV, industrial, and tech clients across the U.S., UK, France, Germany, and Japan.

The acquisition effectively brings home the "metal and alloy midstream engine"—a segment scarce in both the U.S. and the broader Western world—bridging the gap from ore to magnet. LCM, the UK-based rare earth metal and alloy producer, is the only large-scale Western manufacturer of light and heavy rare earth permanent magnet metals and alloys, including strip-cast NdFeB alloys.

These products are the "lifeblood" of high-performance sintered NdFeB magnets, as the standard manufacturing process relies on strip-cast NdFeB alloy feedstock. LCM, with its vacuum induction melting and strip-casting expertise, is the sole commercial-scale producer of such alloys in the West (capacity: ~1,400 tons/year).

USA Rare Earth's Stillwater magnet plant, currently in trial production, aims for an annual output of 5,000 tons of sintered NdFeB magnets, targeting defense, automotive, and wind energy sectors. LCM will supply NdFeB metals and strip-cast alloys to the facility while integrating its defense, automotive, and government networks into USA Rare Earth's ecosystem.

This deal transforms USA Rare Earth from a company with "mines and magnet plants" into one with a complete rare earth supply chain—from oxides to metals/alloys to finished magnets—particularly securing the hardest-to-replicate midstream segment in the West.

However, MP Materials' Mountain Pass mine remains the only operational large-scale U.S. rare earth mine, while USA Rare Earth's upstream mining projects are still in development or trial phases.

**Why Rare Earths Matter to the U.S.** Rare earths—17 metals critical for semiconductors, EVs, aerospace, and defense—are indispensable for advanced technologies, from consumer electronics to missile systems. Amid escalating U.S.-China tensions, the U.S. is aggressively pursuing domestic supply chains to reduce reliance on China, which dominates ~60–70% of global rare earth mining and 85–90%+ of refining and magnet production.

China's near-monopoly over praseodymium-neodymium (NdPr) oxide—key for high-strength magnets—has forced the U.S. to accelerate rare earth independence. Earlier this year, China's rare earth export controls notably softened the Trump administration's tariff stance, given the U.S.'s near-total dependence on Chinese imports.

Since 2024, the U.S. government has unprecedentedly backed rare earth concentrate and magnet production, including investments in MP Materials and bulk orders from Apple and other tech giants. This has propelled MP Materials' stock, once languishing post-2020 IPO, to a 300% surge this year, hitting record highs.

The USA Rare Earth-LCM deal underscores the strategic race to secure rare earth self-sufficiency amid intensifying U.S.-China rivalry.