Remy Blaire: China controls over 90% of global rare earth processing, but a critical defense deadline on January 1st, 2027, will require US military and advanced industrial supply chains to eliminate Chinese heavy rare earth magnets. REalloys is building a feedstock-agnostic North American mine-to-magnet platform to separate, refine, as well as manufacture critical materials. And with initial metal production targeted for early 2027 and a selection by the US Army to operate at an Army depot, can domestic refining reach commercial scale in time?
Well, joining us here at the Stocktoberfest event in New York City is Anupam Ghildyal, chief growth officer of REalloys. Great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.
Anupam Ghildyal: Thank you for having me.
Remy Blaire: Well, we are in the fourth quarter of 2026, so that means time is ticking, and that January 1st deadline is approaching. So tell us why this is such a critical deadline.
Anupam Ghildyal: So this deadline basically eliminates the use of any Chinese-origin metals, not just China but a few other countries as well, in the defense ecosystem. So you cannot supply any defense systems and components that have Chinese-origin metals in them. And the problem is most of the rare earths are being processed and made in China today. Over 90% of light rare earths and over 97% of heavy rare earths are manufactured in China. So we need to find a way. How do we manufacture them domestically to meet this deadline? And that’s why it is very, very important.
Remy Blaire: Yeah. And when we’re talking about a timeline, it does indeed take plenty of resources here. So give us a sense of where REalloys comes in and what your competitive advantage is.
Anupam Ghildyal: So REalloys is a mine-to-magnet company. What that basically involves is four different buckets. Number one is a feedstock that has got the rare earths. Second is separation and processing it into individual rare earth oxides, then converting the oxides into metals, and eventually taking the metals and making them into magnets. So REalloys plays in each of these four areas.
We have our own mine. We also have supply agreements with a bunch of other mines. Through our partner SRC in Saskatchewan, Canada, we have a processing facility to take the rare earth feedstock and convert it into oxides and then into metals. We’ve also been selected by the US Army to set up a heavy rare earth metallization facility at the Tooele Army Base in Utah, and we are also planning on setting up magnet manufacturing operations. So what REalloys is trying to do is control its destiny as far as processing, separating, refining, metals, and magnet making, all of it here in the US.
Remy Blaire: And indeed, you highlighted a lot of key components there when it comes to going into production as you head into the new year. But give us a sense of where you stand right now and what the vision is moving forward.
Anupam Ghildyal: So we are very close to production. We’ve already announced that we will commence production in Q1 of 2027. That’s right, at the same time as the January 1st, 2027, deadline. Our phase one facility, through our partners, Saskatchewan Research Council, is fully commissioned, and this will go into production in Q1 of 2027. And our phase two plan, which is about six times larger, is for making about 10,000 tonnes per year of magnets. And we’ll start production for our phase two, estimated, in 2029, 2030.
Remy Blaire: And while I have you here, I do want to ask you about manufacturing and defense relationships, especially because you are the only rare earth company selected by the US Army to build on an actual military base.
Anupam Ghildyal: It’s important. I think the Army completely realizes and understands how critical these heavy rare earth elements, or rare earth elements in general, are, and also magnet manufacturing. Without these magnets, you cannot make a single missile. You cannot make a single aircraft carrier. You cannot make an F-35. You cannot make any submarines. You cannot make any of the defense systems that would be required. Pretty much everything requires magnets and heavy rare earth elements in them.
So it is critically important for the US Army to ensure that we can manufacture, process, and make these metals and magnets here in the US. And that’s one of the reasons why they chose us to set up a heavy rare earth processing facility at the Tooele Army Base in Utah.
Remy Blaire: And of course, finally, before I let you go, following your $100 million raise this past summer to scale up your facilities, investors may be looking beyond just a year from now and that 2027 deadline, but even 18 months from now. So what are some of the big operational milestones that investors out there should be paying attention to?
Anupam Ghildyal: So the number one thing investors should be paying attention to: it’s a huge market. The US domestic market for magnets is about 30,000 to 50,000 tons per year. Last year, we manufactured pretty much zero. This year, we manufacture maybe 500 to 1,000. So the market opportunity is huge. There are a few serious companies in this space. We are one of them. We have a pretty unique advantage in terms of how we approach things. So we are focused on the midstream processing and refining, versus the other companies who are focused on developing their own mines. What is more important is the refining infrastructure that we are setting up, coupled with the magnet manufacturing. So that is something that investors need to pay attention to.
The second thing would be that we have outlined our plans in terms of how we are going to scale up to 10,000 tons per year of magnets, and eventually 20,000 tons per year of magnets, satisfying roughly 15 to 20% of the US domestic requirement for magnet manufacturing.
And in terms of upcoming milestones, the number one milestone that’s coming up is we start production in Q1 of 2027. We’ve also announced that in Q4 of 2027, we will start setting up our operations at the Army base in Utah for the heavy metallization. And that gives us a unique advantage, because we should become probably the only company with large-scale production of heavy rare earths in the US in 2027. And without the heavy rare earths, you cannot make a single magnet that goes into the missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and other applications.
Remy Blaire: Well, this is a very important conversation when it comes to national security. So I appreciate your time, and thank you so much for sharing the story of REalloys.
Anupam Ghildyal: Thank you for having me.
Remy Blaire: My pleasure.
