The groundbreaking for Niron Magnetics’s first full-scale production plant hasn’t happened yet. The magnet manufacturer is already feeling the pull to build another one.
That’s thanks to a “step change” in demand from sectors like automotive and consumer electronics following China’s move in April to restrict exports of rare earth materials and magnets, Niron CEO Jonathan Rowntree told Tech Brew.
“Everyone now knows about the rare earth challenges and problems. There’s a lot of appetite to deploy capital and help investors solve this problem. So we definitely accelerated,” he said. “Three, four months ago we weren’t thinking about plant two. And now we have an active project that’s progressed a lot.”
Magnets rule: The issue has been top-of-mind for auto executives since China implemented export controls on seven rare earth elements and rare earth magnets in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Rare earth minerals are crucial for the industry, as they’re used in everything from electric motors for electric vehicles to windshield wipers. The world is almost entirely reliant on China, which produces about 90% of global supplies of rare earth magnets.
Flows of rare earth products from China to the US and other markets have started to increase following trade negotiations, with shipments in July at their highest level since January, according to Bloomberg. Still, industry experts previously told Tech Brew that the supply constraint is likely to be a long-term issue—and demand for rare earth elements is expected to skyrocket in the years to come.
“A cell phone has 18 different magnets in it. The car that you drive probably has something like 75 different magnet applications in it,” Rowntree said. “Modern life runs on magnets.”
Force field: Niron sprang out of an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) grant that supported research conducted at the University of Minnesota, Rowntree said. The company was founded in 2013. Another Department of Energy grant helped Niron establish a commercial pilot plant in Minneapolis.
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Now, Niron is preparing to break ground on a full-scale manufacturing plant in Sartell, Minnesota, that’s slated to come online in 2027 with a 1,500-ton annual capacity, even as it homes in on a location for a second US plant with a 10,000-ton capacity.
Niron specializes in iron nitride magnet technology for products ranging from microphones to sensors to traction motors. One of the major benefits of its tech, according to the company, is that its magnets don’t use rare earth elements and instead rely on two abundant raw materials: iron and nitrogen.
And Niron, Rowntree said, has invested in a supply chain that is almost entirely domestic. All of the company’s raw materials are available in the US, he said, via iron salt byproducts from steelmaking and ammonia from fertilizer manufacturing.
“This is a major, major problem, so a lot of customers are looking for solutions to this,” Rowntree said. “What this export control from China precipitated is a lot of those other companies that didn’t have the long-term view…are now coming and saying, ‘We need to solve this.’”
Niron’s investors include General Motors, Stellantis, and Samsung. Rowntree said the company is in discussions with federal government officials on various ways to support the company’s growth. Niron executives are eyeing another fundraising round later this year.
“The Western supply of these magnets is in crisis right now. And we’re proud to be one of the potential solutions to help solve this,” Rowntree said. “And so we’re working as fast and as diligently as possible to scale our technology and commercialize that to help solve the problem.”