TBPN · Sep 24, 2026
With Hooman Reza Nezhad, Co-Founder and CEO of Solcoa Industries
Solcoa Industries has raised $75 million to build a plant in Nevada that will turn 500 tons of rare earth material a year into metal, its chief executive Hooman Reza Nezhad said on the day of the announcement.
The common view is that the West lacks rare earths because it does not mine them. Reza Nezhad said the ore is mined in the West already. What the West cannot do is process it, and he said copying China's processing methods will never be cheap enough to compete.
"The technologies used to make rare earths in China today are American technologies from the Manhattan project."
Reza Nezhad, co-founder and CEO of Solcoa Industries, on TBPN, runs a company that already makes samarium and neodymium-praseodymium metal, two of the rare earth metals used in magnets, at its research and pilot site in Alameda, California, and sells to automakers, magnet makers and defense contractors.
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Here are the 6 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
Solcoa raised $75 million for a 500-ton-a-year rare earth metal plant in Nevada, due to start in July next year
The raw material is not rare and is mined in the West; the bottleneck is processing it into metal
China's labor costs 10 times less and its power a third, so copying its technology cannot close the economics
Defense is only part of the market, and he wants to win the rest without subsidies
China banned samarium exports, leaving a shortage for magnets in the F-35 and guided missiles
Automakers are now buying rare earth oxides and metals themselves, after shortages shut a Ford plant
1. $75M for Solcoa One
John Coogan asked Reza Nezhad to explain the announcement.
The metals of power and motion
Solcoa is a rare earth metallizer, a company that turns refined rare earth material into metal, he said.
"We produce the metals of power and motion." — Hooman Reza Nezhad
"The metals that go into any electric car, any fighter jet, data center, your phone, wind turbine, and we are completely unable to make these metals in the West." — Hooman Reza Nezhad
The company had just raised $75 million for its first commercial project, a plant in Nevada that will produce 500 tons of rare earth metal a year. He called it the first step in taking the company to market.
