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USA Rare Earth will acquire Texas Mineral Resources, the company announced this month—and in the process, it will become sole operator of a southwest Texas rare minerals mining undertaking (Reuters , subscription).

What’s going on: The all-stock transaction, which is valued at $73 million, “will make USA Rare Earth the sole operator of the Round Top project, which it claims to be the largest known U.S. source of heavy rare earth elements, gallium and beryllium.”

• In January, USA Rare Earth announced that the U.S. government was putting $1.6 billion into it “ as part of a broader push to strengthen domestic critical supply chains and reduce reliance on China.”
• Last year, President Trump invoked emergency powers to boost U.S. production of critical minerals in an “effort to offset China’s near-total control of the sector.”

The details: USA Rare Earth anticipates that under its Accelerated Mining Plan,
it will extract nearly 40,000 metric tons a day of rare earth and critical mineral ⁠feedstock by 2030.

• Late last year, USA Rare Earth said it was speeding up its previously given timeline for the Round Top endeavor, with first production now expected in late 2028 (Mining.com ).