MP Materials Plans $1.25 Billion Rare Earth Magnet Campus

The only U.S. operator of a rare earth mine is expanding in North Texas with a billion-dollar bet on magnets.

Las Vegas-based MP Materials said Thursday that it will build a 120-acre manufacturing campus in Northlake, about 27 miles north of Fort Worth, on land owned by Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood. The Dallas Business Journal reported that the nearly $1.3 billion project, dubbed “10X,” is expected to begin testing operations in 2028.

The plant will rise near Harmonson Road and FM 156 in Denton County, less than 10 miles from MP’s existing 250,000-square-foot magnet facility at Hillwood’s AllianceTexas development, according to the outlet. That plant, known as Independence, produces about 1,000 metric tons of neodymium-iron-boron magnets annually and employs more than 160 people. The new campus aims to scale output to 10,000 metric tons per year.

The expansion follows a multibillion-dollar public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense which plans to invest more than $700 million in preferred stock and warrants, positioning it as MP’s largest shareholder. The company also operates the country’s only functioning rare earth mining and processing site at Mountain Pass, California.

The North Texas project is part of a broader federal push to blunt China’s dominance in rare earth magnets, which are essential for electric vehicles, smartphones and defense systems such as guided missiles, according to the publication. China controls roughly 92 percent of global supply, according to a 2022 U.S. Department of Energy report.

MP’s growth in Texas is also tied to private-sector demand, as the company recently inked a $500 million partnership with Apple and expects production to ramp up for General Motors this year, with Apple-related manufacturing slated for 2027, CEO James Litinsky told the outlet.

To land the project, local and state officials assembled a hefty incentives package. Denton County approved a 10-year tax abatement covering 50 percent of real and personal property taxes, capped at $9.3 million. Northlake signed off on its own incentives, and the company secured more than $66 million combined from the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund. Dallas-based CBRE led the national site search.

— Eric Weilbacher