US rare earths miner MP Materials will go public in a $1.47-billion deal by merging with a private-equity backed blank-check company, underscoring Wall Street’s rising interest in efforts to boost production of the strategic minerals.
The listing on the New York Stock Exchange would be the first for a US rare earths company since Molycorp went public a decade ago. Molycorp filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and MP Materials bought California’s Mountain Pass mine and other Molycorp assets in 2017.
The deal, announced on Wednesday, comes as President Donald Trump pushes to resume domestic production and processing of rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used to build weapons and electronics. China is the world’s largest producer of these minerals and has threatened to stop their export to the United States.