Round Top Heavy Rare Earth Project

Overview

A Heavy Rare Earth Deposit on Texas State Land

Round Top Mountain is a rhyolite dome near Sierra Blanca in Hudspeth County. Its ore carries 15 of the 17 rare earth elements, including all the heavy rare earths, plus gallium, beryllium, hafnium, zirconium and lithium. The mine would be an open pit on land leased from the Texas General Land Office (GLO), whose royalties go to the Permanent School Fund.

USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR) held about 81 percent of the project and agreed on March 5, 2026, to buy the remaining interest by acquiring its partner, Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (TMRC), in an all-stock deal valued at about $73 million. The merger closed August 7, 2026. Under its Accelerated Mining Plan, the company targets first commercial production in late 2028 and about 40,000 tonnes a day of rare earth and critical mineral feedstock by 2030.

Mine to Magnet

USA Rare Earth Built the Magnet End First

USA Rare Earth started downstream. Its Stillwater, Oklahoma, plant began commercial NdFeB magnet production in 2026; Line 1a is ramping to 600 metric tons a year by the fourth quarter of 2026, and Line 1b is due in the first quarter of 2027 for 1,200 metric tons. A 6,400-metric-ton metal and magnet plant in Blacksburg, South Carolina, broke ground in 2026 for commissioning in 2028, for a combined 10,000 metric tons a year by 2029.

Less Common Metals (LCM) in Cheshire, England, acquired in November 2025, makes rare earth metals and alloys and poured its first commercial yttrium metal in 2026. The hydrometallurgical demonstration plant in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, was commissioned in June 2026 and has produced NdPr and dysprosium oxide samples from recycled magnet material; its campaigns feed the Round Top feasibility study. A pending purchase of Serra Verde in Minaçu, Brazil, an ionic clay rare earth producer, would add a second ore source.

Funding

Commerce Took a Stake Through the CHIPS Program

The Department of Commerce announced a letter of intent on January 26, 2026, and signed definitive agreements in June 2026: up to $277 million in CHIPS Program funding and up to $1.3 billion in senior secured loans, released against project milestones through 2028. Commerce receives 16.1 million common shares and about 17.6 million warrants. With a $1.5 billion private placement that closed January 28, 2026, USA Rare Earth reports about $3.5 billion in committed capital. The deal has no price floor or offtake, unlike the Department of War's arrangement with MP Materials.

China

Round Top Targets the Elements China Restricts

China produced about 69 percent of the world's mined rare earths in 2025 and processes up to 90 percent, according to GlobalData, and nearly all separated dysprosium and terbium comes from Chinese refiners such as China Rare Earth Group and China Northern Rare Earth Group. Since April 2025, China has required export licenses for seven medium and heavy rare earths, among them dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, and a broader October 2025 expansion is suspended only until November 10, 2026. China also produces about 98 percent of the world's primary gallium and banned gallium exports to the United States in December 2024 before suspending that ban in November 2025.

Round Top's dysprosium and terbium would supply the high-temperature magnets made at Stillwater and at MP Materials' Independence plant in Fort Worth, whose own Mountain Pass ore is mostly light rare earths.

Constraints

Feasibility, Process Scale-Up and Milestone Funding

Round Top has no mine construction yet; the company's June 2026 quarterly filing still classifies it as an exploration-stage project. Separating 15 rare earths plus by-product metals from Round Top ore at commercial scale is unproven outside the Wheat Ridge demonstration plant, and Commerce releases money only as milestones are met.

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