Australia’s Lynas, the world’s largest rare earths miner outside China, plans to raise A$825mn (US$538mn) to boost stockpiles, expand capacity, and invest in magnet makers in Malaysia and the US, according to the Financial Times. Rare earths are critical for products ranging from weapons systems and electric vehicles to medical devices and bicycles.
“We want to be able to participate, either on an operational or a supply or an equity basis in this part of the supply chain,” said Amanda Lacaze, Lynas’s chief executive, during an investor call.
FT writes that the fundraising, which includes a fully underwritten share issue and an A$75mn share purchase plan for existing shareholders, comes as western governments push to counter China’s dominance of rare earths. Last month, Washington bought a stake in MP Materials and set a decade-long price floor nearly double current market rates. Lynas is in talks with the US, Australian, and Japanese governments over similar measures to support a non-Chinese supply chain.
Lynas has already benefited from Japanese financing to build out “light” rare earths production and, more recently, expanded into “heavy” rare earths.
“Lynas broke the Chinese monopoly on lights in 2013. This year, in 2025, we broke the Chinese monopoly on heavies,” Lacaze said.
Still, Lacaze warned of “significant uncertainty” around the company’s US defence-backed Seadrift project in Texas due to difficulties securing offtake agreements.
For the year ending June 30, Lynas reported revenue up 20 per cent to A$556mn but net profit fell to A$8mn from A$84.5mn a year earlier, reflecting production issues and rising costs tied to expansion.
As we have detailed repeatedly, last month, the US government bought a stake in MP Materials, the Las Vegas–based rare earths company, as part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on China for critical minerals. The move underscores Washington’s push to build a domestic supply chain for rare earths used in defense systems, electric vehicles, and other technologies.
MP Materials, which operates the Mountain Pass mine in California, is one of the few US-based producers and had previously held merger talks with Australia’s Lynas that collapsed in 2024.
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