Hancock Prospecting purchased a 5.3% stake holding in California-based MP Materials.

Hancock Prospecting, owned by Australian billionaire Gina Reinhart, announced it has acquired a 5.3% stake holding, equating to 8.78M shares, in US-based rare earth miner and processor MP Materials. The stakeholding in MP Materials is the third rare earth company in which Hancock Prospecting has acquired a stake, with the company taking a 6.17% stake in Brazilian Rare Earths developing the Rocha de Rocha project in Brazil and a 9.14% holding in Arafura Rare Earths in Australia developing the Nolans project.

The share acquisition itself is expected to have little impact on the day-to-day operations at the Mount Pass mine and refinery operated by MP Materials. However, with the association between Australian and US critical materials strategies growing ever stronger, Hancock building a shareholding in MP Materials is seen by some as a potential catalyst for greater cooperation between Australian and US companies in developing a China-independent rare earth supply chain. This includes a merger between Lynas Rare Earths and MP Materials which the two parties discussed, but ultimately abandoned, earlier in 2024. A merger between Lynas Rare Earths and MP Materials would provide synergies in terms of planned processing facilities in the USA, and a consolidation of existing expertise in rare earth mining and processing. Despite these synergies, a reignition of merger dialogue between the two companies solely because of Hancock Prospecting’s stakeholding in the short term is considered unlikely.