The USA Rare Earth Stillwater facility is the first commercial sintered neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnet manufacturing plant in the United States to commission a production line in the modern era. Located at 100 West Airport Road in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the 310,000-square-foot plant — operated by USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR) — commissioned Phase 1a of commercial magnet production on 26 March 2026, enabling customer order fulfilment from Q2 2026.
USA Rare Earth Stillwater: Facility Overview
The Stillwater plant is formally designated the Innovation Lab. Its core manufacturing equipment has a distinctive history: the sintered rare earth magnet production lines were originally operated by Hitachi Metals America at a facility in North Carolina, which was commissioned in 2011 and closed in 2015 after less than two years of operation following resolution of a Japan-China rare earth trade dispute. USAR acquired the equipment in 2020 and spent four years relocating and recommissioning it at the Stillwater site, a former Total Energy building purchased from an oil services company.
The facility employs more than 100 people and manages the full sintered magnet production process in-house: raw material preparation, jet milling to ultra-fine powder, wet pressing into blocks, machining, coating, and final magnetisation. The primary product is sintered NdFeB permanent magnets — the high-performance magnet type used in EV traction motors, direct-drive wind turbine generators, defence guidance systems, industrial robotics, and MRI machines. The plant also produces samarium-cobalt (SmCo) specialty magnets for aerospace and defence applications where higher operating temperatures are required.
Production Timeline: From Promise to Commissioning
The Stillwater facility was announced in June 2022, with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce citing initial production by 2023. The state and city committed $8.2 million in direct public funding — including $7 million in Tax Increment Financing — alongside property tax incentives. Production targets subsequently slipped: to 2024 (per CEO statements in mid-2023), to end-2025 (per 2024 SEC filings), and finally to Q1 2026. Phase 1a was commissioned on 26 March 2026 — approximately three years behind the original public timeline.
As of May 2026, the facility is operational and scaling. The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality confirmed to local media that a recent inspection found construction still ongoing as the ramp progresses. USAR has confirmed production-grade magnets are being manufactured and customer orders are being taken, with commercial sales deliveries guided for the second half of 2026.
Capacity Roadmap
| Phase | Capacity (MTPA) | Target Date |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1a — commissioned | 600 MTPA run-rate | Q4 2026 |
| Phase 1b — under planning | 1,200 MTPA total | Q1 2027 |
| Full build-out (4 phases) | ~4,800 MTPA | Target: 2028–2030 |
At full build-out, Stillwater would be one of the largest NdFeB magnet plants outside China by volume. For context, global NdFeB magnet production is estimated at roughly 200,000–220,000 MTPA, of which China accounts for approximately 85–90%. A 4,800 MTPA plant would represent roughly 2–2.5% of current global output — meaningful for Western supply chain security but not a market-moving volume at the macro level.
Magnet Manufacturing Process and Product Range
Sintered NdFeB magnets are manufactured through a powder metallurgy route. The process begins with rare earth metal alloys — primarily neodymium and praseodymium for the magnetic matrix, with dysprosium added to improve coercivity (resistance to demagnetisation at elevated temperatures). The alloy is strip-cast, jet-milled to micron-scale powder, aligned in a magnetic field, pressed, and sintered at high temperature. The finished magnet is then machined to specification, surface-coated against oxidation, and magnetised.
Dysprosium content is critical for magnets destined for EV motors, which operate at temperatures where an undoped NdFeB magnet would lose performance. This is why Stillwater’s integration with USAR’s Round Top heavy rare earth project — which hosts significant dysprosium and terbium — is strategically significant. Until Round Top reaches commercial production (targeted 2028), Stillwater sources metal feedstock from third parties, principally through USAR’s UK subsidiary Less Common Metals (LCM) in Cheshire.
Customer Pipeline and Commercial Relationships
USAR has signed over 12 MOUs and joint development agreements with customers across defence, aerospace, data centres, automotive, and semiconductor sectors. On 23 March 2026, USAR and Arnold Magnetic Technologies (a subsidiary of Compass Diversified) signed a mutual sales and distribution agreement: USAR offers Arnold’s SmCo and NdFeB finished magnets through its channels, while Arnold offers USAR’s NdFeB feedstock and finished magnets to its customer base. Arnold is an established supplier to US defence primes and aerospace OEMs, giving Stillwater output immediate access to qualified supply chains.
Vendor qualification visits from semiconductor manufacturers, industrial motor OEMs, heavy equipment companies, and aerospace contractors were completed through Q1 2026. USAR guided the conversion of prototype and production purchase orders into commercial shipments in Q2 2026, with sales to customers expected in the second half of 2026. For the defence procurement angle, see the Top 10 rare earth defence applications.
Supply Chain Integration and Federal Backing
Stillwater is the magnet manufacturing node in USAR’s mine-to-magnet supply chain. The full integrated chain runs: Round Top ore (Texas) → Wheat Ridge hydromet demonstration (Colorado) → LCM metals and alloys (Cheshire, UK) → Stillwater magnets (Oklahoma) → end customers. The Serra Verde acquisition (Goiás, Brazil), if completed, adds a second upstream source of all four magnetic rare earths and is expected to accelerate Stillwater’s access to processed oxide feedstock.
The proposed $1.6 billion Department of Commerce CHIPS Program funding package is partly directed at Stillwater capacity expansion and infrastructure. Definitive documentation on that package remained in final stages as of mid-May 2026. See the USA Rare Earth Q1 2026 results for the latest financial context.
Stillwater Facility — Key Facts
| Data Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | 100 West Airport Road, Stillwater, Oklahoma |
| Operator | USA Rare Earth, Inc. (Nasdaq: USAR) |
| Facility size | 310,000 sq ft (former Total Energy building) |
| Designation | Innovation Lab |
| Core equipment origin | Hitachi Metals America, North Carolina (acquired 2020) |
| Primary product | Sintered NdFeB permanent magnets; SmCo specialty magnets |
| Phase 1a commissioned | 26 March 2026 |
| Phase 1a target capacity | 600 MTPA run-rate by Q4 2026 |
| Phase 1b target capacity | 1,200 MTPA total by Q1 2027 |
| Full build-out capacity | ~4,800 MTPA (four phases) |
| Employees | 100+ |
| Customer shipments guided | H2 2026 (qualification orders from Q2 2026) |
| Key distribution partner | Arnold Magnetic Technologies (Compass Diversified) |
| Public funding received | $8.2m Oklahoma state/city (2022); proposed $1.6bn DOC CHIPS (unsigned) |
What does the USA Rare Earth Stillwater facility produce?
The Stillwater facility in Oklahoma produces sintered neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets and samarium-cobalt (SmCo) specialty magnets. NdFeB magnets are used in EV motors, wind turbine generators, defence systems, industrial robotics, and medical imaging. SmCo magnets are used in aerospace and high-temperature defence applications where NdFeB performance degrades.
When did the Stillwater magnet plant commission?
USA Rare Earth commissioned Phase 1a at Stillwater on 26 March 2026. The facility formally opened as the Innovation Lab in March 2025 and had produced trial magnets earlier that year. Commercial customer order fulfilment is guided for Q2–H2 2026. Phase 1a targets 600 MTPA run-rate by Q4 2026; Phase 1b brings total capacity to 1,200 MTPA in Q1 2027.
What is the full capacity of the Stillwater magnet plant?
At full build-out across four production phases, the Stillwater facility is designed to produce approximately 4,800 metric tonnes of magnets per year. That timeline extends into 2028–2030 and is contingent on customer demand, capital deployment, and upstream feedstock availability from the Round Top project in Texas.
Why did Stillwater take longer than originally planned?
Production was originally announced for 2023 when the facility was unveiled in June 2022. Delays in equipment recommissioning, permitting, and production qualification pushed the timeline to Q1 2026. The core sintered magnet equipment was purchased in 2020 from Hitachi Metals America — production equipment originally built for a North Carolina plant closed in 2015 — and required extensive recommissioning work before it was ready for commercial-grade output.
How does Stillwater fit into USA Rare Earth’s mine-to-magnet strategy?
Stillwater is the downstream manufacturing node in USAR’s integrated supply chain. The chain links Round Top heavy rare earth ore in Texas through hydrometallurgical processing in Colorado and metal and alloy production at Less Common Metals in Cheshire, UK, to finished magnet manufacturing in Oklahoma. Until Round Top reaches commercial production (targeted 2028), Stillwater sources feedstock from LCM and third parties.
