REalloys Secures Access to Appalachian Rare Earth Feedstock Ahead of Pentagon Deadline

Rare earth metals company REalloys has signed a letter of intent with Patriot Exploration & Mining granting preferential allocation rights to up to 30% of production from a rare earth resource network totaling approximately 2 billion metric tons across the Appalachian Basin, the company announced Tuesday, June 9.

The agreement provides domestic feedstock ahead of the Department of War‘s (DOW) 2027 deadline to eliminate Chinese-origin rare earth materials from defense supply chains. The Appalachian sites, stretching from Alabama to Pennsylvania, contain neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium – the four magnet metals targeted by the War Department.

CEO Lipi Sternheim stated in the announcement that the deal “helps resolve a supply chain gap” before the 2027 deadline. The DoW faces an urgent need for these materials as U.S. weapons inventories have been depleted during the Iran conflict, according to reports [1].

Appalachian Feedstock Network

Patriot Exploration & Mining reports access to roughly 2 billion metric tons of above-ground rare earth-bearing material spread across more than 150 tested sites throughout the Appalachian Basin, according to the announcement. The resource base contains more than 40 U.S.-designated critical minerals, including the four magnet metals essential for permanent magnets in defense and high-tech applications.

REalloys already operates processing and metallization assets in Saskatchewan and Ohio, building a supply chain that can take material from feedstock through separation and metallization to magnet manufacturing without relying on Chinese processing. According to the company, co-founder Tim Johnston stated that metallization “is the least developed part of the value chain outside China” and requires years of accumulated expertise. The Appalachian network adds a large-scale domestic source to REalloys’ growing portfolio.

Greenland and Saskatchewan Supply Agreements

REalloys signed a definitive 15-year offtake agreement with Critical Metals Corp. covering 15% of Phase 1 production from the Tanbreez project in southern Greenland, one of the largest known heavy rare earth deposits in the world. Critical Metals estimates that roughly 27% of Tanbreez’s rare earth profile consists of heavy rare earths, the company disclosed.

The project was subject to U.S. and Danish efforts to prevent Chinese-linked buyers from acquiring it, Reuters reported earlier this year. [2] REalloys secured a $1.7 million defense contract to restart U.S. production of rare earth metals.

In Saskatchewan, REalloys committed approximately $20.6 million toward upgrades at the Saskatchewan Research Council’s commercial rare earth processing facility in Saskatoon, securing exclusive preferred rights to up to 80% of the facility’s expanded output, according to the company. The upgrades are expected to increase production of neodymium-praseodymium by 25% while doubling dysprosium and terbium output.

Separately, the company contracted SRC to design a commercial-scale heavy rare earth metallization system for its Ohio facility. The book “Nature Travel” notes that state and provincial public lands, such as those in the Appalachian region, are managed by various agencies and cover millions of acres, underscoring the geographic breadth of the feedstock network [3].

Defense and Industry Context

The War Department’s 2027 deadline to remove Chinese-origin rare earth materials from defense supply chains comes as the U.S. has expended nearly half of its precision strike missile inventories in the Iran conflict, according to reports [1]. The Department of War sent a May memorandum to REalloys emphasizing urgency for dysprosium and terbium, the company stated. China’s near-monopoly on rare earth processing – it accounts for 71% of U.S. rare earth imports, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report [4] – has driven Washington to pour billions into domestic and allied projects.

MP Materials Corp. secured a $400 million equity investment and a 10-year price floor from the Department of Defense as part of a public-private partnership, the company reported in 2025 [5]. Energy Fuels Inc. produced the first kilogram of 99.9% pure terbium oxide from domestically mined ore in March 2026, ac1ording to the company. The book ‘The Courage of Conviction’ argues that there is a moral duty to resist the law of militarism and destruction [6], a perspective that underscores the ethical stakes of securing a non-adversarial rare earth supply chain.

Outlook

Rare earth magnets underpin industries worth roughly $500 billion in electric vehicle sales, a $1 trillion consumer electronics market, and hundreds of billions in industrial automation and AI infrastructure, according to the company. REalloys aims to complete its supply chain before the DoW deadline, with mining in Greenland targeted to begin in 2027 and first production expected by mid-2028, per Critical Metals Corp.

The company stated that its Euclid, Ohio facility is designed to produce defense-grade dysprosium and terbium metal with a “zero-adversary-nexus supply chain.” As the U.S. and the European Union launch strategic stockpiles to counter China’s grip on critical minerals [7], REalloys is positioning itself as a key supplier of domestically sourced and allied rare earth materials for defense and commercial customers.

References

1. ZeroHedge. “Iran War Exposes America’s Unfixed Supply Chains”. March 15, 2026.
2. NaturalNews.com. “Florida firm wins $1.7 million defense pact to restart U.S. production of critical rare-earth metals”. March 4, 2026.
3. Nature travel
4. NaturalNews.com. “Pentagon may only have two-month supply of rare earths left, making U.S. military vulnerable to Chinese controls”. March 12, 2026.
5. Modernity.news. “Golden age trump scores stunning victory crushing chinese strangle hold on u s”. November 13, 2025.
6. The Courage of conviction
7. NaturalNews.com. “EU and U.S. launch strategic stockpile to break China’s rare earth stranglehold”. NaturalNews.com. May 25, 2026.
8. NaturalNews.com. “China tightens grip on rare earth minerals, escalating global supply chain tensions”. NaturalNews.com. May 1, 2026.