The seven rare earth stocks worth tracking — $MP, $LYC.AX, $USAR, $ILU.AX, $UUUU, $ALOY, $TMC — where each sits in the mine-to-magnet supply chain, why the trade has re-accelerated under Chinese export controls, and how to think about REMX vs a focused Western basket.
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Rare earth stocks are publicly traded companies that mine, separate, refine, or process the 17 rare earth elements — neodymium, dysprosium, terbium and others — that power high-strength magnets in EV motors, wind turbines, AI server fans, robotics, missile guidance, and consumer electronics. China controls roughly 70% of global mining and 85–90% of separation/refining capacity, so every Western company on this list exists, fundamentally, because Beijing's export controls have made supply-chain diversification a strategic priority for the US, EU, Japan, and Australia.
This guide walks through the seven public rare-earth names worth tracking, where each one sits in the value chain, and why the trade has re-accelerated in 2026.
👉 See live prices and performance: Rare Earths basket on Macroplane — equal-weighted index of the seven names below, updated continuously.
These are the companies in Macroplane's Rare Earths basket, grouped by where they sit in the supply chain.
$MP — MP Materials Corp The only operating rare earth mine in the United States (Mountain Pass, California). Producing roughly 15% of global rare-earth concentrate. The strategic story is the mine-to-magnet vertical integration: MP is building a separation facility at Mountain Pass plus a NdFeB magnet plant in Fort Worth, Texas, with General Motors as the anchor customer. When that fully ramps, MP becomes the first end-to-end US rare earth producer in three decades.
$USAR — USA Rare Earth A heavy-rare-earth-focused project at Round Top, Texas, with a separation pilot in Colorado. USA Rare Earth's pitch is that Round Top is rich in dysprosium and terbium — the heavy REEs that are most strategically scarce (China controls >90% of heavy REE refining) and most price-sensitive in high-temperature motor and defense applications.
$ALOY — ReAlloys Inc A specialty alloys and rare-earth magnet recycling play. Smaller than MP and USAR, but operates as the only US producer of certain specialty rare-earth metals and alloys feeding directly into defense supply chains.
$LYC.AX — Lynas Rare Earths Limited The world's largest rare-earth producer outside China and the only ex-China supplier of separated NdPr (neodymium-praseodymium oxide) at scale. Mine in Mount Weld (Western Australia), separation in Malaysia, plus a new Texas facility under construction with US Department of Defense funding. If you can only own one ex-China rare earth name, this is the default.
$ILU.AX — Iluka Resources Limited Historically a mineral sands (zircon, titanium dioxide) company, Iluka is building Australia's first fully integrated heavy-rare-earth refinery at Eneabba, also with Australian government backing. The Eneabba project is one of the few non-Chinese options for terbium and dysprosium refining.
$UUUU — Energy Fuels Inc Primarily a US uranium producer, but co-processes rare earth concentrates from monazite at its White Mesa mill in Utah. Has shipped commercial-quality separated NdPr — the first US producer to do so on a meaningful scale.
$TMC — TMC the metals Co Inc A polymetallic seafloor nodule developer (cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper) with rare-earth-element credits in the mix. Speculative but a credible long-dated alternative source if seabed mining permitting clears.
Three forces are driving the trade right now.
Beijing has progressively tightened export licensing on rare-earth processing technology, separation chemicals, gallium, germanium, graphite, and as of 2025-2026, on certain refined rare-earth products themselves. The current US administration's response has been to accelerate Department of Defense funding for domestic alternatives ($MP, $USAR, $LYC.AX Texas facility, $ILU.AX Eneabba). Every tightening event acts as a catalyst for the Western names.
The neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnet — the strongest permanent magnet humanity can make — is the indispensable component in efficient electric motors. AI data centers need it for high-efficiency cooling fans and precision actuators. Humanoid robots (Tesla Optimus, Figure, Apptronik, 1X) need 30-50 kg of NdFeB-grade magnets per unit. EVs need 2-4 kg per vehicle. Wind turbines need 600-700 kg per direct-drive turbine. The demand stack is non-discretionary.
US Department of Defense contracts now explicitly require domestic or allied-source rare earths for certain missile, radar, and aerospace systems. That is structural, multi-year contracted revenue for $MP, $USAR, $UUUU, $ALOY, and $LYC.AX's Texas facility.
Most retail investors think "rare earths = mining." That's wrong, and the framing matters for picking stocks.
The supply chain has five stages, and value plus strategic risk concentrate in stages 2 and 3.
| Stage | What happens | Where China dominates | Public companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Mining | Pull ore out of the ground, produce mixed REE concentrate | ~70% of global supply | $MP, $LYC.AX, $UUUU, Chinese SOEs |
| 2. Separation | Solvent-extraction chains separate the 17 elements from each other | ~85-90% of global capacity | $LYC.AX (Malaysia), $MP (building), $ILU.AX (building), $UUUU (limited) |
| 3. Metallization / oxide-to-metal | Convert oxides to metals usable in magnets | ~90%+ of global capacity | $ALOY, $MP (planned), tiny Western footprint |
| 4. Magnet production | Sinter NdFeB into permanent magnets | ~90% of global production | $MP (Fort Worth), USA Rare Earth (planned), nothing else US-scale |
| 5. End products | EV motors, wind turbines, robotics, electronics | Distributed | OEMs (Tesla, Ford, GM, GE Vernova etc.) |
The chokepoint is separation and metallization. A mine without a separation facility ships unsorted concentrate, often back to China for processing. That's why $LYC.AX is the bellwether: it owns the only meaningful ex-China separation capacity that's been running for over a decade.
This is also the lens through which to evaluate new entrants. Any company that controls (or is credibly building) separation, metallization, and magnet capacity together — not just mining — earns a premium valuation in this cycle. That's the $MP and the $LYC.AX story; it is increasingly the $USAR and $ILU.AX story; and it explains why $UUUU and $ALOY trade as optionality on smaller-scale capability rather than as scaled producers.
The dominant rare-earth ETF is REMX (VanEck Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF). Here's how to think about it versus building the basket yourself.
| REMX ETF | Macroplane Rare Earths basket | |
|---|---|---|
| Pure-play exposure | ~40% — diluted with broader strategic metals (lithium, tin, tungsten) | 100% — all 7 holdings are rare-earth focused |
| Geographic mix | Mostly Chinese constituents at the top | Zero China exposure — all Western (US + Australia) |
| Concentration | Smoothed across 25+ holdings | Concentrated on the highest-conviction Western names |
| Strategic-thesis fit | Diluted by non-REE metals | Designed around the China-substitution thesis |
| Expense ratio | 0.59% per year | Free to track on Macroplane |
If your thesis is "the West has to build a non-Chinese rare-earth supply chain," REMX is the wrong vehicle — it's substantially exposed to the very supply chain you're trying to hedge. A focused basket of $MP, $LYC.AX, $ILU.AX, $USAR, $UUUU, $ALOY, $TMC is the more direct expression.
👉 Build it your way: clone the Rare Earths basket on Macroplane, swap constituents, set weightings — see live performance instantly.
Rare earths are one leg of the Rare Earth & Critical Minerals macro trend we track. The other legs — lithium, cobalt, graphite, gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten — share the same structural setup (Chinese dominance + Western reshoring), but the rare-earth chapter is the most policy-driven and the most defense-adjacent. That makes it the highest-conviction subset for investors looking specifically for non-cyclical policy-backed demand rather than commodity-cycle exposure.
If you're building a strategic-metals portfolio rather than a pure rare-earth portfolio, pair the names above with lithium ($ALB, $SQM, $LTHM), uranium ($CCJ, $UUUU again, $UEC), copper ($FCX, $SCCO), and tungsten/antimony names. Macroplane's Rare Earth & Critical Minerals trend page maintains the broader watchlist.
The seven names in this guide cover the credible Western rare-earth investment universe: $MP, $LYC.AX, $USAR, $ILU.AX, $UUUU, $ALOY, and $TMC. Within that set, $LYC.AX and $MP are the closest to "producer" status, $USAR and $ILU.AX are large optionality plays on heavy-REE refining capacity coming online, and $UUUU, $ALOY, and $TMC are smaller, more speculative bets. There is no single "best" pick — the basket exists because policy and capacity ramps are inherently lumpy and binary, so diversifying across the credible Western names is the standard approach.
Yes — mining is ~70% Chinese, separation is ~85–90% Chinese, and magnet production is ~90% Chinese. That dominance is narrowing slowly as $LYC.AX expands, $MP builds out separation and magnet capacity in Texas, and $ILU.AX commissions Eneabba — but the structural picture will still be Chinese-led for years. The investment thesis is on the rate of change (Western capacity ramping from ~5% toward 20-30% of global by 2030), not on a full decoupling.
Light rare earths (lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium) are more abundant and used in catalysts, glass, and standard NdFeB magnets. Heavy rare earths (dysprosium, terbium, yttrium, europium) are scarcer and critical for high-temperature magnets in EV motors and defense systems, plus phosphors and lasers. China controls heavy REE refining even more tightly than light REEs (>90%), which is why $USAR's Round Top project (dysprosium-rich) and $ILU.AX's Eneabba refinery (heavy-REE focused) command strategic premiums.
Yes — they trade like small-cap commodity names with policy overhangs. Daily 10%+ moves on Beijing export announcements, US DoD contracts, or earnings prints are normal. Position sizing should reflect that; the basket approach exists partly to absorb idiosyncratic single-name shocks while keeping thesis exposure.
The Rare Earths basket on Macroplane shows daily and longer-term performance for each constituent, plus links to per-company supply-chain maps, news, and customer relationships. The Rare Earth & Critical Minerals trend page widens the lens to lithium, cobalt, uranium, and other strategic metals.
The seven names in this guide cover the credible Western rare-earth investment universe: $MP, $LYC.AX, $USAR, $ILU.AX, $UUUU, $ALOY, and $TMC. Within that set, $LYC.AX and $MP are the closest to "producer" status, $USAR and $ILU.AX are large optionality plays on heavy-REE refining capacity coming online, and $UUUU, $ALOY, and $TMC are smaller, more speculative bets. There is no single "best" pick — the basket exists because policy and capacity ramps are inherently lumpy and binary, so diversifying across the credible Western names is the standard approach.
Yes — mining is ~70% Chinese, separation is ~85–90% Chinese, and magnet production is ~90% Chinese. That dominance is narrowing slowly as $LYC.AX expands, $MP builds out separation and magnet capacity in Texas, and $ILU.AX commissions Eneabba — but the structural picture will still be Chinese-led for years. The investment thesis is on the rate of change (Western capacity ramping from ~5% toward 20-30% of global by 2030), not on a full decoupling.
Light rare earths (lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium) are more abundant and used in catalysts, glass, and standard NdFeB magnets. Heavy rare earths (dysprosium, terbium, yttrium, europium) are scarcer and critical for high-temperature magnets in EV motors and defense systems, plus phosphors and lasers. China controls heavy REE refining even more tightly than light REEs (>90%), which is why $USAR's Round Top project (dysprosium-rich) and $ILU.AX's Eneabba refinery (heavy-REE focused) command strategic premiums.
Yes — they trade like small-cap commodity names with policy overhangs. Daily 10%+ moves on Beijing export announcements, US DoD contracts, or earnings prints are normal. Position sizing should reflect that; the basket approach exists partly to absorb idiosyncratic single-name shocks while keeping thesis exposure.
The Rare Earths basket on Macroplane shows daily and longer-term performance for each constituent, plus links to per-company supply-chain maps, news, and customer relationships. The Rare Earth & Critical Minerals trend page widens the lens to lithium, cobalt, uranium, and other strategic metals.