A fund that counts Donald Trump Jr. as a partner is bankrolling the last link of a rare earths supply chain that starts in southern Minas Gerais, Brazil's mining heartland. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the Australian miner Meteoric Resources has already shipped samples from its Caldeira project, in the towns of Andradas, Caldas and Poços de Caldas, to the Canadian processor Ucore Rare Metals. Ucore plans to separate the elements at a plant in the US state of Louisiana and supply the American magnet maker Vulcan Elements, which received funding from the 1789 Capital fund in August 2025.
The ore route
The route designed by the companies has three steps. Meteoric mines the ore and produces mixed rare earth carbonate in Minas Gerais. Ucore takes delivery in Alexandria, Louisiana, and splits the mix into individual oxides such as neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium. Vulcan buys those oxides to make magnets in North Carolina for drones, satellites, military equipment and electric cars, Folha reports. Rare earths are a group of metals with no cheap substitute in high-strength magnets, and most of the world's processing today sits in China.
The agreements tying the chain together are signed, though none is a final contract. In August 2024, Meteoric and Ucore signed a memorandum covering supply of at least 3,000 tonnes a year of rare earth oxides, including more than 900 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium, 24 tonnes of dysprosium and 6 tonnes of terbium, according to the miner. On March 16 this year, Ucore and Vulcan signed another memorandum, with sample testing already under way and commercial supply due to start in 2027, Ucore said.
"Since its inception, Vulcan Elements' mission has been to build a domestic rare earth magnet supply chain that can propel America into the 21st century and enable the next era of innovation and national security. Together, we're rebuilding a core industry that is critical for economic growth and national security," said Vulcan CEO John Maslin in the announcement.
Current output is pilot scale. In a June 11 filing to the Australian market, Meteoric said its unit in Minas Gerais processed 43 tonnes of ore and produced more than 200 kilograms of concentrate, with average extraction of 71% of the magnet-making elements. The company says the project holds 78 mining licenses over 19,200 hectares, with 1.6 billion tonnes of material still to be assessed. It projects more than 20 years of operation at an average of 12,500 tonnes of oxides a year. Commercial mining has not started: in May, the company filed for the installation license needed to build the full operation.
US public money and a Brazilian rule
On the American side, Vulcan counts on government backing. In 2025, the Pentagon announced a conditional loan commitment of US$ 620 million (about 3.2 billion reais) to the company, Folha reports. Ucore describes the deal as part of a US$ 1.4 billion partnership between Vulcan and the US government, including the Department of War and the Department of Commerce, to build a factory in Benson, North Carolina, with capacity for 10,000 tonnes of magnets a year, which Ucore calls the largest in the world outside China. The newsroom ProPublica revealed in May that the request to speed up the loan review came from Peter Navarro, a White House adviser and friend of Trump Jr. At the time, the president's son, 1789 Capital and the Pentagon denied that political ties influenced the decision.
In Brazil, the chain runs into a new rule. A law signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from bill 2,780/2024, created a national policy for critical, strategic minerals and rare earths and allows federal review of international supply deals that could affect the country's economic or geopolitical security. Because the Meteoric-Ucore memorandum predates the law, Folha reports the government could question how the rule applies to a final contract.
For southern Minas Gerais, the immediate effect is a race for permits and investment. Meteoric's project is sized at about US$ 450 million, according to the Australian publication The Pick, which covered the project's progress in March. Folha counts seven rare earths projects near the Pedra Branca environmental protection area in the same region. For consumers, the chain is invisible, but the ore's destination is known: the magnets made in North Carolina go into electric cars, electronics and defense equipment, markets that now depend on Chinese processing. If the Brazilian material reaches American factories in 2027, those sectors gain a supply source outside China.