Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) has reached a significant operational milestone with its first commercial sale of heavy rare earth metals, marking a breakthrough in the Company’s advanced metallisation capabilities at its Korean Metals Plant.

The landmark sale included 2 kilograms each of terbium (Tb) and dysprosium (Dy) metals to Magnequench, a subsidiary of global materials leader Neo Performance Materials (Neo). These critical heavy rare earth metals, produced using ASM’s proprietary in-house technology, were shipped to Neo’s permanent magnet manufacturing facility in Estonia.

Building on this success, ASM also completed the sale of an additional 10 tonnes of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal to Neo, following the previous delivery of 19 tonnes. This growing commercial relationship demonstrates the strength of ASM’s position as a trusted supplier of high-purity rare earth materials outside China.

The sales achievements coincide with ASM signing a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Neo to explore broader collaboration opportunities. The 12-month framework agreement covers potential cooperation in sales of light and heavy rare earth metals, tolling services at ASM’s Korean Metals Plant, and gallium supply from Neo to support ASM’s magnet alloy production.

“Neo is an established leader in the production of rare earth magnetic powders and magnets, specialty chemicals, metals, and alloys. Combined with a global footprint that includes Canada, Estonia, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, and the US, Neo has a geographical reach and capability suite that is highly complementary to ASM and aligns with our vision of establishing secure, diversified and sustainable critical materials supply chains,” said Rowena Smith, ASM Managing Director & CEO.

The heavy rare earth breakthrough positions ASM at the forefront of global efforts to develop resilient supply chains for critical materials essential to clean energy technologies, advanced manufacturing, and defence applications. With China’s continued export restrictions on these strategic materials, ASM’s proven production capability offers a crucial alternative for Western manufacturers.

These developments support ASM’s continued ramp-up of the Korean Metals Plant and strengthen the strategic case for expanding metallisation operations into the United States.

For the full statement: https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/ASM/02967523.pdf