MP Materials Corp. / DE

2020: From blank cheque to public miner

The company began as Fortress Value Acquisition Corp, a blank-cheque company (a shell that raises money to buy a business). On 4 May 2020 it completed its IPO, selling 34,500,000 units at $10 each for $345 million. On 15 July it agreed to merge with MP Mine Operations and Secure Natural Resources, the owners of the Mountain Pass rare-earth mine in California. The filing described Mountain Pass as the only integrated mine and processing plant of its kind in the western hemisphere, run by about 250 people.

The merger closed on 17 November 2020. Fortress became MP Materials Corp., and its shares began trading on the NYSE under the ticker MP. KPMG was engaged as auditor at closing. Shares on issue rose from 66,556,975 at the end of 2019 to 170,719,979 at the end of 2020.

2021-2023: Funding expansion and a key buyer

On 26 March 2021 the company completed a $690 million offering of 0.25% Green Convertible Senior Notes due 2026, which are bonds that can be converted into shares. It raised about $672 million after costs, to expand its rare-earth processing. Shares on issue stayed close to 178 million through 2023.

On 4 March 2022 its subsidiary signed a two-year take-or-pay agreement (the buyer must pay whether or not it takes the goods) making Shenghe Resources (Singapore) the exclusive China distributor of Mountain Pass concentrate. The company kept certain direct global sales, and Shenghe earned a variable commission.

On 17 February 2023 the company asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to validate a 2020 charter amendment that raised the number of authorized shares. It had found the change may not have received the separate class vote Delaware law requires, which left legal uncertainty over shares issued under it. The record does not show the outcome.

2024: More debt and a record year

On 7 March 2024 the company issued $747.5 million of 3.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2030. It planned to use the proceeds for capped calls, repurchasing about 12.3 million shares, buying back $400 million of its 2026 notes, and general purposes. In January 2024 the Shenghe agreement had been renewed through at least 2026. In December it privately exchanged about $142.3 million of its 2026 notes for about $115.3 million of 2030 notes, which cut the principal owed and pushed out the maturity.

Mountain Pass set a production record in 2024 of more than 45,000 metric tons of rare-earth oxide concentrate, along with about 1,300 metric tons of NdPr oxide (a rare-earth product used in magnets). Shares on issue were 163,195,788 at year end, down from the previous year; the planned repurchase of about 12.3 million shares accounts for most of the fall.

2025: Magnets and the Defense Department

On 22 January 2025 the company began commercial NdPr metal production at its Fort Worth "Independence" facility, along with trial production of sintered NdFeB magnets. The plant targeted about 1,000 metric tons a year of capacity, ramping in late 2025, and supplied GM and others.

On 9-10 July 2025 it entered a partnership with the US Department of Defense. The department took a $400 million equity stake, with up to $350 million more available, and lent $150 million for heavy rare-earth separation. It also set a 10-year NdPr price floor of $110 per kilogram and agreed a 10-year offtake for magnets from a planned second magnet facility, called "10X". This reduced the company's reliance on buyers such as Shenghe.

On 25 August 2025 it secured a new $275 million, five-year revolving credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as joint lead arrangers. At that date it ran the only scaled active US rare-earth mine, was ramping magnet production in Fort Worth, and carried convertible notes due in 2026 and 2030.