Ionic and USSM Plan US$100 Million Rare-Earth Recycling Plant in Missouri

Ionic Rare Earths (ASX:IXR,OTCQB:IXRRF) has signed a non-binding joint venture (JV) term sheet with Missouri-based US Strategic Metals to build a US$100 million rare-earth magnet recycling campus in the US.

USSM will supply US$95 million in project funding, while the partners split the remaining US$5 million equity contribution equally. In exchange for its equity position, Ionic will grant a non-exclusive license for its proprietary recycling technology, developed by its Belfast-based subsidiary, Ionic Technologies.

The proposed facility will sit on USSM’s 1,800-acre fully permitted site near Fredericktown, Missouri. The plant will process end-of-life neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) and samarium-cobalt (SmCo) magnets and manufacturing scrap.

The venture will also evaluate the recovery of heavy rare earth elements, specifically europium, gadolinium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, and yttrium.

The JV supersedes a memorandum of understanding signed in November 2025 and also aligns directly with the Trump administration’s mandate to establish domestic critical mineral supply chains independent of China.

The US faces a structural supply bottleneck; the primary challenge lies not in mining raw ore, but in building domestic separation and conversion capacity.

Recycling provides an expedited feedstock channel because scrap magnets already contain highly concentrated strategic materials. Ionic has demonstrated the ability to recover separated rare-earth oxides from waste streams at grades exceeding 99.9 percent at its UK facility.

“Magnet recycling is a fast and low-cost pathway to developing a secure, sovereign and sustainable rare earths supply chain,” IonicRE Managing Director Tim Harrison said in the announcement. “It is intended that the proposed JV will deliver on the capability already demonstrated at demonstration scale at Ionic Technologies in the UK to deliver a resilient supply of high purity, separated REOs for US industrial needs."

Under the term sheet, the partners will deploy the initial US$5 million equity injection to complete Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and accelerate demonstration-scale recycling at the Missouri site. Any future capital requirements will fall directly to the JV.

A five-person board will manage day-to-day operations, with USSM appointing three managers and Ionic USA appointing two. Ionic will also chair the Technical Operations Committee.

As of writing, the agreement remains conditional. Both companies must finalize definitive agreements and execute their capital contributions before the JV takes formal effect.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.