MP Materials Corp. (MP)
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Apr 24, 2026, 3:07 PM EDT - Market open
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Status update

Apr 1, 2026

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Hi, good morning, everyone. We're going to start our fireside chat today. I still see people joining, but we're just going to do a quick intro before we dive into the topic today. This is our last of our series of expert call/fireside chat that we brought to you guys over the last three weeks. We had the first one, thematic view on critical minerals. The second one was last week with Adamas Intelligence. Really, you know, I would say, digging into the rare earth market supply chain and the landscape overall with pricing. Then today we thought we would bring, you know, the main player here and that we have under coverage, MP Materials.

I have Ryan Corbett, CFO, and he's going to be with us for the next 35 minutes. Ryan, thank you for taking the time.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Thank you, Corinne. Happy to be here.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Thank you. All right. By the way, just as usual, we're going to give some time for Q&A. Few ways, you can email me, you can ping me on Bloomberg. I already saw some questions coming through. But we would prefer if you could just raise your hand and ask a live question. We're just going to start, Ryan. Obviously it has been almost nine months, close to a year now since the transformative agreement that you have with the Department of Defense. Can you kick off today's discussion with a high level view of MP and the integration, the vertical integration player that you are trying to be?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Sure. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think the important thing to keep in mind about MP Materials for those that are newer to the story is it's you know, the strategy of vertical integration isn't just an aim, it's something that we're doing at scale today. MP owns and operates Mountain Pass, which is one of the world's richest rare earth ore bodies. We're the second largest producer of rare earth content in the world today. We're one of the largest refiners of rare earths as well. We exited last year at a run rate of approximately 4,000 tons of NdPr oxide production on our way towards our targeted throughput of about 6,000 from our initial capacity. Importantly, there's a lot of talk about magnets, of course, given their criticality.

There are a lot of process steps in between going from an oxide to a magnet. We've been on a pretty methodical approach to solving the entirety of the supply chain issue, and really are the only company in the world with a true vertical integration capability that is operating today and generating positive earnings today at scale. Going from, you know, mining material, refining that material at Mountain Pass, producing rare earth metals, strip cast alloy flake, finished magnets, all under one roof is not done anywhere else, and we are doing that today.

Certainly, you know, the framework and you know, really transformative partnership agreement that we announced with the Department of War as you mentioned in July of last year, allows us to meaningfully accelerate that vertical integration and really scale the magnet business to match the tremendous scale that we have on our upstream and midstream assets, which we're working on as we speak.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

All right. Thank you. I mean, can you talk about the current agreement? I mean, obviously you have a floor price, you have a offtake agreement, you have a 10X capacity as well. Maybe just step by step, kind of like from, you know, upstream to downstream, if you can talk about this.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Sure, absolutely. You know, I think the important thing about the partnership that we have with the Department of War is really we were the only ones that were positioned to be able to meet the needs of the moment. What we really need in the United States is to build on the existing capacity that MP Materials has been focused on building since 2017. What that brought to bear for us was a price floor agreement for our upstream and midstream assets, referenced on NdPr pricing. Certainly, I'm sure we'll talk about this. This really paved the way, I think, for other scaled producers in the industry, and it's really transformed already, and you've seen it manifest in pricing, the way the market operates today.

On the Materials Segment for us, we have a guaranteed floor price while maintaining upside to market prices for the critical value driver of that segment. In addition to that, one of the exciting parts of this agreement is our 10X facility that we announced in partnership with the Department of War. What that enabled us to do is invest rapidly and significantly in taking our ultimate targeted throughput of magnet production in the United States from the initial 1,000 tons. That's the initial capacity of our Independence facility that we're ramping as we speak. We're expanding that facility to 3,000 tons, and then we're building a brand new facility that we call 10X. That's an incremental 7,000 tons of capacity.

Importantly, that entire new facility has an offtake agreement with the Department of War, guaranteeing us sales of magnet products, as well as a guaranteed minimum earnings profile from that facility. I think the thing that I get questions on quite often at this point is when we announced the transformational deal, we gave a view as to what our minimums or our minimum earning potential was, given the various facets of the agreement. We talked about roughly a $650 million targeted EBITDA minimum. I think, you know, a lot has happened since then. Namely, we announced a transformational deal, another one with Apple, where we will be making magnets at Independence for them and building a scaled recycling business with them as an anchor customer. In addition to a variety other

of other initiatives that we have in the works that provides very significant upside to that.

That minimum guaranteed EBITDA. I think, you know, what's important to keep in mind is of that $650 million of EBITDA, north of $400 million of that is in the Materials Segment. We maintain upside exposure to raw materials pricing and NdPr pricing, you know, in that segment. We've seen the market react, obviously, to the recent supply-demand dynamics and certainly to the fundamental changes that are present in the market given our deal. There's a significant amount of upside that we can get into on that. In addition to the fact that the guidance that we gave on the Magnet Segment assumes just the minimum earnings that's guaranteed from our offtake agreement. We expect very significant upside to that as we commercially syndicate the capacity of the 10X facility.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Yes, makes sense. Then we will come back on the 10X facility in terms of like, ramp-up and progress. I just want to continue kind of on government, like, you know, government intervention and policy. We have seen recently some replication of the deal that you have got, right? If I can say so, with all the unknown China firms and very similar for Apple. What's your view on this and kind of the overall support that we're seeing throughout the industry? Is it positive that, you know, you mean the government is at least, you know, not backing away, and how, you know, the impact on MP basically near term and medium term?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Yeah. I think one thing that's probably missed in the investing community is just how meaningfully positive, you know, some of these follow-on, you know, particularly the Lynas deal, which I'm sure you're referencing, is for MP, and particularly our competitive position, both in the material space, but namely in the magnetic space. You saw a reaction in market prices almost immediately. What I think is underappreciated about how meaningfully different the market is today post this follow-on announcement versus what it looked like before is effectively, you know, you have two scaled producers of NdPr oxide outside of China.

With Lynas's deal with the government of Japan, they have guaranteed 5,000 tons of their output to the Japanese magnet industry, which also is a great customer of ours in our Material Segment. They also have effectively a ROFR up to over 7,000 tons. When you look at their potential joint venture in Malaysia for a magnet facility, the vast majority of Lynas's output is spoken for. Obviously, you look at our business, and we are rapidly vertically integrating. The concept of the nearly 50,000 tons of magnet capacity that's been announced in the Western world over the last 18-24 months, and the availability of the critical feedstock of NdPr to power that is really in question.

I think, you know, not only will you need to see meaningfully higher prices in order to incentivize any sort of reaction. I mean, 50,000 tons of magnets is 25,000 tons of NdPr. You know, we're one of the world's largest producers by far, targeting 6,000 tons. The dynamics of this market from a supply-demand perspective, primarily in the Western world, ex China, has really transformed, and the availability of that product is really a question. If you think about our competitive position as a fully integrated magnet producer, the only way to guarantee as a customer that the critical feedstock to power this product is available is to come to us.

You know, I think we're tremendously excited about what we've seen develop in the market, and I think what you've seen is proven producers are the ones that have been able to garner the requisite support, you know, with real teeth in it, you know, in order to drive this market forward.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

No, I think that makes sense. We had a very similar conversation with Ryan Castilloux from Adamas last week, and I think we're already the both are Nikes in the industry, so that's very in line. Maybe one last question, obviously, we cannot ignore it. The conflict in Middle East, I think it has sparked some investor question, wonder as well how it can impact you, kind of, you know, maybe like a positive here. What's your view?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Yeah, sure. I think I tend to get questions both on, from our supply chain perspective.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Yeah.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

On the impacts on the business. Then to your point, I think there are implications from a demand perspective. So on the supply chain side, I mean, obviously fuel prices are up. You know, fuel, diesel, et cetera, are a relatively immaterial proportion of our total production base and cost structure. So from that perspective, there's no material impact. I think there are also concerns globally about sulfuric acid supply. You know, this sort of comes back to one of the great advantages of the Mountain Pass ore body being a bastnaesite ore. We don't do a sulfuric acid leach or sulfuric acid roast. We do an oxidizing roast without acid in order to convert our product into oxide.

From the commodities that we do consume, hydrochloric acid, caustic, et cetera, we haven't seen a meaningful impact. From a cost structure perspective or a security of supply perspective, we don't have any major concerns. Certainly a conflict is a conflict and that's, you know, tough generally on shipping, et cetera, but nothing meaningful. I think from a demand perspective, to your point, this really just underscores we saw it in and are seeing it actively in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. We're certainly seeing it with the Iran conflict. You know, this is really almost a drone war. When you think about how the market is developing, and I know you covered this a bit with Adamas, you know, drones are flying magnets, flying NdFeB magnets.

The reality is that as our industrial base in the United States, and particularly the defense industrial base, continues to mature and invest in some of these critical enabling technologies, whether it's robotics or drones, these are all major users of NdFeB magnets, even, you know, significantly more content often for some of them than you even see on EV platforms and automotive platforms and consumer electronics platforms. We remain incredibly excited about the demand opportunity. When you think about the concept of how demand is shaping up, there are two critical elements of that that I think are important to understand. First is something like a drone, whether it's a consumer drone or a defense drone or robotics application, that is a dual use technology.

If you are a producer, an OEM for those types of products, you will not be able to source your magnets out of China. There has to be a scaled producer in the Western world where you get your material. If you look at the technologies that we're talking about, often these are technologies where both from our technology from a magnet-making process and product development perspective, and just generally given the application, there is often much less heavy rare earth demand and content within those magnets. Really, I think the underappreciated bottleneck here is not access to heavy rare earths like a lot of folks like to point to. It's access to NdPr.

With all of those things combined, again, we think that, you know, our cycling initiatives, the market is playing into our strategy perfectly at this point.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

No, that's very interesting. Again, I think that's relatively aligned with what we have talked about with Adamas last week. Let me check. Maybe let me pause here. I know we have 20 more minutes. Does anyone here have any question? I think I saw some hand being raised at the beginning of the call. Sorry, we have a lot of people today.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

That's good.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

That's very good. Yes. I don't see any hand raised. I have some question, but I keep it for later. You talk about drone and defense and kind of don't have to be too deep, but what's your view on the demand vectors over the next three to five years? Is this really like AI and robotics taking over part of most of the demand? I think, you know, from Adamas, that was very clear, and that's one of the key takeaway last week.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Sure. Yeah, undoubtedly, you know, there are sort of if you look at the business and the demand profile without that significant, you know, new growth vector, the market remains very attractive, right? You know, despite, you know, EV penetration, for example, not ramping the way that many anticipated three or four years ago, even on ICE platforms, almost every single ICE platform is getting electrified in some way. You know, any pure ICE really ends up being a mild hybrid.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Magnet content per vehicle continues to increase very significantly. We continue to see the automotive business as a very attractive and growing business for us. You know, our deal with Apple, consumer electronics is, you know, growing really rapidly. You know, I think it's underappreciated, frankly, the scale of magnet demand within consumer electronics. You know, there are the sort of less sexy items, you know, elevators and escalators and things like that have obviously, you know, been referenced, you know, real estate. But then you get into sort of these really exciting new areas that we've talked about. If you look at AI, certainly the physical layer of AI, robotics, is hugely exciting.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

You know, every single actuator, and you think about the dexterity that's required, you know, for these particular use cases is, you know, driving and is anticipated to drive really significant demand for incremental magnet capacity. Then you think about almost the underappreciated sort of behind the scenes piece of powering, you know, the growth in AI. Data centers need cooling.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

You know, every HVAC system, you know, efficient HVAC system has magnets in it. While there's a lot of focus on memory and, you know, what we see is not all that memory is flash. A lot of that is HDDs. HDDs are a big spinning magnetic head. The use cases there, you know, are multifaceted and are growing very, very rapidly. That absolutely opens up new and exciting opportunities for us. You know, the drone comment that we talked about before, undoubtedly, you know, that's driving, you know, new demand, both consumer and defense use cases. There are a lot of new growth elements to the story, and I think what was always present continues to be pretty attractive in its own right.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm. That's interesting. Have you seen a shift in terms of like, you know, you have announced an offtake agreement with like a robotic company, right? Like, have you seen like an increase of maybe people approaching you from that part of the demand, or is it taking longer?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Well, I think, you know, what I would say there is, several thoughts. In April of last year, when the initial export restrictions from China were placed on the market, everyone was in tactical mode. Every customer was frantically-

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Trying to ensure that their assembly lines did not shut. We saw some actually shut. You know, we saw an automotive manufacturer have to curtail and stop production. It's interesting, it wasn't a magnet going into a traction motor. It was a magnet going into a speaker. It's pretty tough to sell a car without an audio system. So it gives you a sense of just how pervasive, you know, magnet content is across all of these technologies that we're used to just being able to buy with no problem. So I think what we have seen is a shift from a tactical mindset of ensuring that lines don't shut tomorrow to a much more strategic mindset of how do we ensure over the next three, five, 10+ years there is a solution here given how rapidly content is growing.

You know, we announced, you know, a strategic offtake, you know, for, you know, our Material Segment last quarter, you know, which was a very significant transaction for us.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

For an American industrial company that I think speaks to the change in mindset where the end user is now truly focused on ensuring the entirety of the supply chain is covered. That is exactly where our strengths lie as an upstream and midstream producer and as a magnet producer, being able to guarantee that security of supply. We see a meaningful shift. Certainly, you know, we have a tremendous number of conversations ongoing. You know, I think what should be clear is, you know, General Motors is our foundational customer at Independence. You know, that covers, you know, the initial capacity of that plant. Apple is anchoring the expansion of that plant.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

The Department of War is backstopping from an offtake perspective the entirety of 10X. Effectively from my perspective, I'm sold out. Certainly I think the goal and the interesting thing about the Department of War partnership is, you know, if you read the documents that were filed publicly, the target is to work together to develop the various magnet grades both for their use and for broader U.S. industrial use that opens up the widest aperture for us to address the U.S.' needs. We've already agreed with them on those particular specifications. I think when you fast-forward into when we are in production at 10X, we will be able to address the vast majority of the use cases that we've spoken about.

It puts us in a very good position from a product and process perspective to meet the needs of the moment. You know, from my perspective, we are in no rush to announce a bunch of offtakes.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

You know, we've got you know, sort of the fundamentals beneath us to continue to build this business and do it in a thoughtful way. We have always been extremely methodical in the partners that we bring to bear on our platform. We'll continue to approach it the exact same way we always have.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

That's very helpful. In the interest of time, let me move one more question on the rare earths market and then kind of on your mining and refining progress. On the rare earths topic, like the market itself, I mean, we had a conversation with Adamas about the price bifurcation, right? Like China versus ex-China pricing, and I think it's becoming evident. What's your view here? Like do you expect the ex-China to be around that 110? Do you expect it to further climb up? And then if you can talk as well, I believe you are looking at some of the benchmarks which come from Asia and China, so that's kind of a disconnect here as well.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Right. Yeah, I think that, in general we're always, you know, reticent to give specific price forecasts on, you know, what we think exactly things are gonna do. When you look at how meaningfully the fundamentals of the ex-China market have shifted over the last 18 months, it's really hard not to be extremely bullish NdPr prices.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Particularly ex-China to your point on bifurcation. Certainly you've got, you know, the two largest ex-China producers now with a price floor agreement with various governments. The conversations that we are having on the midstream side of the business are certainly indicative of the fact that these other potential consumers of product understand that the market has changed. Historically, the conversation completely centered around Asian benchmarks. That conversation is meaningfully shifting. I think, you know, we're seeing that pivot happen real time. That is a tremendously exciting development in the market given the fact that, you know, we sit at a place in the cost curve where we can enjoy significant benefits from upside in pricing.

To the point I discussed earlier on the need for incremental supply, you know, much of what we are seeing, if it comes online, is going to be at a very different, you know, cost structure and point on the cost curve than where MP Materials sits. That really positions the upstream and midstream business for success. You know, I think that as we think about how contracting will work over time, the reality is that, you know, we've got the opportunity with our recycling business as well to continue to scale, you know, and drive incremental NdPr production out of our existing facilities and out of the recycling facility that we're building.

Even at 10,000 tons of magnet capacity, 10,000 tons of magnets is roughly, on a yield adjusted basis, 5,000 tons of NdPr oxide.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

We already have that, you know, that 1,000 at our targeted throughput. Add on to that, you know, pretty significant increment from recycling, and we have either the opportunity to, you know, sell our product as an upstream/midstream product into the market and enjoy that upside or continue to grow the magnet business and be able to enjoy the upside via that side of the coin. You know, what I think the dynamics of the market will present to us, and what we consistently tend to see is the highest return on capital opportunity for us often is just reinvesting in Mountain Pass.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

...than any other sources. I think that opportunity set just continues to grow with what we expect we'll need to develop within the market.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Okay. That's fair enough. Maybe jumping on the asset itself and like Mountain Pass. I mean, you have NdPr expected to exit this year run rate of 6 kt, right, I believe. Can you talk about the next maybe key dates or milestones to reach that target? Are you on track? I do believe like about 18 months ago, when we all went on site with you guys, there was some discussion about maybe upside, you know, for production, like, you know, like looking at a mine plan improvement. Have you been giving more thought on this?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Sure. Yeah. You know, I think that where we sit today and, you know, our discussion on where we exited 2025 gives us tremendous confidence in our ability.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

...to, you know, hit our targeted throughputs. At this point, you know, from a milestone perspective, what Michael, our COO, guided to last quarter was, you know, at least a 20% sequential growth coming into this quarter. You know, a bit of upside in the next two quarters, which if you look under the hood, what that really means is, for example, you know, in April, starting imminently, we'll take our planned plant shutdown, where we do our typical preventative maintenance, as well as addressing some of the key bottlenecks in this debottlenecking initiative of getting to 6,000 tons.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

You know, when you see slight growth sequentially from Q1 - Q2, what that really is some downtime and then some pretty meaningful growth coming out of that, you know, out of that downtime. You know, we will methodically reach, you know, and target by the end of the year to be run rating at our 6,000 ton throughput. At this point, it's really addressing key mechanical material movements, you know, through the plant, as well as just continuing to hone and improve mechanical reliability on certain assets. There's a very clear pathway to address these, and so that sort of manifests in our obvious confidence in getting there.

You know, I think that what we expect to see from a resource perspective over time, you look at, you know, the existing mine life embedded in our S-K 1300 report. I think what we expect from Mountain Pass is many decades beyond what's already in that mine plan. The way we've always thought about it is, given the way we are running the business and the way we are leveraging the mine and the mine plan to date, and then generally, you know, what we've experienced from our public markets investors is, you know, there wasn't a tremendous amount of value placed on, you know, big headlines on

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Resource and reserve statements and things like that.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Yeah.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

We've been focused on running the business, and if there is a business need to further define the asset, we will do so. I think what we're starting to see is both a business need to further define the asset, as well as, you know, an appreciation, I think, in the investing public for the longevity of this asset. Certainly we are looking at the opportunity to further define the ore body. We think there is tremendous potential upside there. Just, you know, putting it into basics, our cutoff grade is 2.5%. You know, our waste stockpile is probably the U.S.' second best rare earth ore body. There are obvious, you know, pretty basic mining technologies that we can bring to bear to be able to leverage that over time.

you know, I think longevity of the Mountain Pass asset is not anything that I ever lose an iota of sleep over. It is something that I think we will continue to invest in and prove out over time, you know, the potential upside within it.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

No, I think that's fair. For anyone that hasn't been on site, it's a pretty impressive site and operations, really. Maybe kind of a similar question for 10X and more like on the magnet and independence. Can you highlight, like, you know, the path to the 10X and maybe like the key milestone that investors should be expecting to see?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Sure. Yeah. As you look at independence, obviously what we talked about is we are beginning the production qualification process for our products and for our commercial process within the facility. We expect to have a revenue for magnet products in the back half of this year from a foundational customer. From that perspective, you know, there's a very clear pathway to getting through that process and starting to generate magnet revenue out of that plant. Obviously, we're currently generating, you know, revenue and earnings from the precursor products that we produce.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

We've talked about the start of production for our Apple partnership beginning in the middle of 2027, and so you'll be able to layer, you know, that ramp up on top of the ramp of the GM capacity. Both of those will be a modest ramp to get to the targeted throughput. You layer on again, you know, what we've guided to for 10X. You know, while it's an ambitious target, we feel like we've got the pieces in place at this point to get to, you know, a mid or end of 2028 commissioning of

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

... that plant. You know, we announced you know a couple of weeks ago, we have the site selected. We are imminently about to be moving dirt. We've made a tremendous amount of progress on long-lead equipment ordering, you know, design, et cetera. You know, we're certainly extremely appreciative of the State of Texas and Greg Abbott's office for you know approximately $200 million incentive package for that plant, you know, of which about $66 million is direct grants to us that we will achieve as we continue on our pathway to execution there. Again, we've got you know supportive regulators, supportive environment and an absolute focused you know warp speed mindset to get that facility online.

You know, there are a number of milestones to look out for over the next several years as we bring each of those pieces online.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

No, that's good. What would you say could be the most like, few of the challenges that could arise? Is this more from a technical point of view to reach it, or is it more like maybe like a government support that could change over the next few years?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Sure. No, I think fundamentally we are in execution mode, right?

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

We've got a binding agreement, you know, with our partner in the Department of War. We feel very good about that relationship, and that's enabled us to accelerate our investment plan. You know, we are making tremendous progress, as we just talked about on the upstream and midstream side of the business, as well as the magnetic side. I think that we are. You know, we set ourselves very ambitious targets from a technical perspective on the magnetic side of the business. Mind you, we hired our first employee who is our, you know, our EVP of Magnetics, our head of that business unit, in 2021.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

You know, this is a relatively new initiative, and what we've been able to accomplish from a product quality perspective already and a process development perspective has impressed us, you know, even beyond, you know, what were very, very ambitious targets. You know, I don't think of this as a, you know, specifically technical challenge. This is just an execution and debottlenecking challenge fundamentally. You know, that's something that we have proven our ability to overcome with the progress that we've shown at Mountain Pass, as an example. You know, it's underappreciated, I think, that we had zero refining really until 2024.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

Now we are one of the largest refiners in the world, from a total standstill. You know, same with the upstream business. In 2017 we started with nothing. We had eight employees. We're the second largest producer of rare earth content in the world. I think we have the fundamental building blocks in place, and we've proven our ability to execute as an operator over time to meet our, you know, our challenging targets.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

We expect to continue to do that.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

That's good. I think we're left with one or two minutes here. Maybe like a closing comment or commentary for investor. I mean, the stock has had a lot of volatility as expected. I think, you know, after it was announced, the agreement last year, we saw a lot of people just kind of jumping into the name, not necessarily knowing much about what you guys are doing. It was more like a geopolitical and government policy move. Then we're kind of start seeing, like, investor coming back to the fundamentals and exactly what we're talking today about progress and execution and even cost. What would you say to those investors that are still a little bit on the sideline and waiting to enter MP?

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

I think fundamentally everything that we've discussed, I think underscores the thoughtfulness and focus of the strategy that we have been on since the inception of the business, approaching this, in a staged approach and building a true scaled, vertically integrated platform. My view is that there is no one else that has the set of assets that we do that will enable us to meet the actual end need that the market is asking for, and there is no one that can do it at the scale that we provide. That scale, you know, your comment on costs, I think-

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

This industry is a scaled industry. You look at the structure of the market. You know, the vast majority of the NdPr market is supplied by three mines. That is a structural issue that will not be overcome by announcements of, you know, some discovery out here or out there. What it comes down to is a demonstrated ability to execute. It comes down to the fact that this is not really an on-the-come story. Yes, we have

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Mm-hmm.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

A tremendous amount of growth and execution ahead of us that will continue to benefit the business and our shareholders, but right now we are generating significant earnings, you know, in our Material Segment that we talked about a moment ago is a huge piece of the puzzle, a huge piece of the pie, you know, for our targeted earnings profile. You know, we have a very unique mix of, you know, significant growth in cash from operations while having very high risk-adjusted return on capital opportunities to invest in. You know, I'm incredibly bullish obviously about our opportunity set. You know, the X factor that I think kept a lot of people on the sidelines for a very long time was how do you control for, you know, the mercantilist threat from China?

The reality is we have addressed that problem uniquely in the partnership that we've created with the Department of War. With all of those pieces in place, you know, we are heads down in executing this strategy.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Yeah. No, I think that's fair. The China dependency, not just the fact that they were number one, but your price was dependent on whatever China decided to do, and I think that is a big factor. I think for investors now you have a certain visibility and path, like in terms of financials and in the pricing that you're getting. We're on one or two minutes left, so I'm going to let you go. Ryan, thank you so much for being with us. I really appreciate it. I appreciate everyone on the line. That was one of our most attended fireside chat of the year. So, pretty good. I'm sure you guys may welcome any investor on-site, so don't hesitate to reach out through us or through Martin from IR. Yeah, thank you again.

Have a good day, everyone.

Ryan Corbett
CFO, MP Materials

It's great. Appreciate it.

Corinne Blanchard
Director and Equity Research Analyst of Lithium, Solar and Clean Tech, Deutsche Bank

Thank you. Bye.

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