US rare-earths producer Current Chemicals scales up fluoride production with fresh investment

Current Chemicals is ramping up production of critical rare-earth materials in the United States following a fresh investment from its lead shareholder, Momentum Global Ventures (MGV), in a move aimed at strengthening America's domestic mine-to-magnet supply chain.

The investment will expand CCI's Cleveland operations, rising production of neodymium fluoride, dysprosium fluoride and other specialised rare-earth fluorides utilized in manufacturing high-performance magnets, cutting-edge coatings and alloys.

CCI is among a limited number of US companies converting separated rare-earth oxides into fluorides — an essential intermediate material in the production of rare-earth metals and permanent magnets.

The latest funding will support additional infrastructure, equipment and engineering personnel, enabling the company to scale production of fluorides of neodymium, dysprosium, terbium, gadolinium, yttrium, scandium, lanthanum and lithium, alongside materials utilized to minimize light rare-earths to metal.

The expansion comes as the United States faces mounting pressure to secure domestic supplies of critical minerals and minimize its application on China, which currently dominates much of the rare-earth processing sector.

Neodymium and dysprosium fluorides are particularly crucial as feedstocks to metals utilized in high-performance permanent magnets. These magnets are essential components in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and defence systems.

With US defence sourcing rules set to tighten from January 2027, domestic rare-earth conversion capacity is emerging as one of the most critical and constrained links in the country's supply chain.

“Demand to these fluorides is accelerating as upstream rare-earth supply expands and downstream magnet, coating products, and alloy production grows, and this investment lets us scale rapidly using the infrastructure and process expertise we already have in Cleveland,” said Bill Cohen, CEO & Chairman of Current Chemicals.

“This added volume is an crucial measure toward our goal of 1,000 metric tons of annual capacity and beyond. Momentum Global Ventures shares our vision of building a reliable, high-condition source of these critical materials to a resilient supply chain serving manufacturers across North America and Europe.”

The additional investment underscores MGV's commitment to expanding domestic production capacity as demand to critical rare-earth materials gathers pace.

“The world needs these critical materials, and demand is enormous,” said Pieter Six, Asset Director at Momentum Global Ventures and CCI board member.

“Investing again shows our prolonged commitment to CCI and to a secure domestic supply chain”.

The expansion positions CCI to play a larger role in the research of a greater resilient North American and European rare-earth supply chain, targeting a key processing bottleneck between raw rare-earth materials and finished magnets.