MP Materials

MP Materials

James Litinsky, a former JHL Capital Group portfolio manager, acquired the Mountain Pass rare-earth mine out of bankruptcy in 2017 through a consortium, after the prior owner, Molycorp, collapsed under commodity-price pressure and operational debt. Shelly Lombard, an early partner from distressed-investing circles, helped structure the acquisition, which rebooted the only operational rare-earth mine and processing facility in the United States. The thesis was simple: Mountain Pass holds the largest known bastnaesite deposit outside of China, and whoever controls it controls a strategic chokepoint in the advanced-materials supply chain. MP Materials currently produces roughly 15% of global rare-earth oxide concentrate from its Mountain Pass, California facility and has commissioned downstream separation circuits capable of producing neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, cerium, and lanthanum (per firm statements, 2024). The company sells concentrate and separated oxides to refiners and magnet manufacturers, with its primary offtake partner being Shenghe Resources, a Chinese rare-earth processor, under a supply agreement that the U.S. Department of Defense has scrutinized. In 2022, MP received a $35 million Defense Production Act grant to accelerate domestic heavy rare-earth separation, and General Motors signed a binding agreement to source NdPr for electric-motor magnets from a new Fort Worth magnet facility MP is constructing (per GM, 2022). The company employs roughly 400 professionals across its Las Vegas headquarters and the Mountain Pass site, with a market capitalization that has swung from $12 billion in the peak commodity run of 2021 to approximately $2.4 billion in early 2025, reflecting rare-earth price volatility and the capital-intensive nature of downstream vertical integration (per SEC filings). In late 2024, the company announced the appointment of Ryan Corbett, a former GE Power executive with extensive supply-chain operating experience, as CEO, succeeding Litinsky in the day-to-day operational role while Litinsky remained Chairman (per the firm, December 2024). The transition signaled a shift from asset-rehabilitation mode toward full-scale industrial execution. What separates MP Materials from junior miners is vertical integration: instead of selling concentrate and booking a commodity margin, the company is building the Fort Worth magnet facility to convert its own oxides into finished neodymium magnets for automotive and defense OEMs, a direct challenge to China's roughly 90% share of the global magnet market. This downstream move brings MP into competition not just with Chinese state-owned processors, but with Western entrants like Neo Performance Materials and Lynas Rare Earths, making it the most structurally integrated rare-earth company headquartered in the United States.