A new iron magnet — invented in Minnesota — could reduce reliance on China for EV motors and cellphones

Inside an office park in northeast Minneapolis last week, a local musician played "The Star-Spangled Banner" on an electric guitar — Jimi Hendrix style — for a bipartisan crowd of politicians and business leaders.

The music was more than an ear-splitting introduction to a ribbon cutting. The guitar's pickups were built with unusual magnets made with iron and nitrogen. Originating in a University of Minnesota laboratory, that technology could help the U.S. energy transition amid a fierce global competition for critical metals.

Currently, magnets overwhelmingly come from a group of 17 metals called rare earth elements produced largely by China. At the event, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a Minnesota DFLer, described that dependence as a threat to national security.

Niron Magnetics says it can be a new domestic magnet source for production that goes beyond cool guitars to include cellphones, speakers, weapons, electric vehicle motors and wind turbines.

"We're commercializing the first new magnetic material in 40 years," said Niron CEO Jonathan Rowntree.

The company on Thursday was celebrating the opening of its first plant, a pilot operation that is the result of 20 years of research and testing subsidized by the federal government.

Niron is also planning its full-scale facility near St. Cloud and is already talking about additional plants.

Magnetic breakthrough draws attention

Niron's magnets started with University of Minnesota professor Jian-Ping Wang, who unlocked a highly magnetic material called iron nitride.

The form of iron nitride used by Niron was discovered in the 1950s, and its magnetic properties were recognized in ensuing decades. Research came to a near stop in the early 2000s after other scientists didn't agree about its properties.

After Wang moved to the U.S. from Singapore in 2002, he spent roughly eight years working to re-create the iron nitride and develop scientific theory to prove its magnetic performance. At the time, he wasn't even thinking about producing actual magnets.

Wang published the breakthrough paper in 2010. That same year, China temporarily blocked exports of rare earth elements to Japan amid a territorial dispute over fishing in contested waters.

As the price for rare earths rose around the globe, the U.S. government commissioned research on rare earth alternatives to avoid future crises. Today, California has the only U.S. mine primarily for rare earths. It historically exported material to China for refining, though it's now building its own domestic processing and manufacturing chain.

China's global share of rare earth mining has fallen to roughly 60%, but it still dominates all other aspects of magnet production, said Ryan Castilloux, an authority on critical material supply chains with the market research and advisory firm Adamas Intelligence.

Rare earths are relatively abundant, though hard to find in large amounts, according to the book "The War Below" by Reuters journalist Ernest Scheyder.

The United States once was a major producer, but China came to dominate the sector in part because of lagging U.S. interest and investment, and also in part because China's lower environmental, labor and safety standards gave it a price advantage, Scheyder wrote.

Niron's iron comes from a byproduct in the steelmaking process, avoiding the need for rare earth mines that can be environmentally damaging.

In 2011, the U got a $4.25 million grant from the Department of Energy to show it would be possible to create an iron nitride magnet. Wang founded Niron inside his lab in 2013 and the company in 2022 got a $17.5 million DOE grant to help it grow.

Time magazine named the "clean earth magnet" one of the best inventions of 2023.

Niron aims big as it scales technology

At the plant in northeast Minneapolis, Niron creates a fine iron oxide powder, which is "nanoparticles" of rust, said Tom Grainger, the company's senior director of business development and investor relations.

The company uses gases to replace the oxygen in the rust with nitrogen. That powder is pressed with high force into a magnet. The process takes days to weeks, Grainger said.

Wang said the Niron magnets are good for about 80% of uses, but he is working at the U on improvements necessary for some high-end technologies like EV motors.

Castilloux said it's not yet clear what Niron's magnets are best suited for in an industry with highly specialized needs. Another question is whether they will perform under tough conditions, like extreme temperatures, for huge vehicle and wind turbine markets, or are better for simpler electronics and speakers.

Still, the company has powerful investors, including General Motors, Volvo, Samsung, Western Digital and Stellantis. That's why Castilloux is "cautiously optimistic" about Niron despite the challenges of commercializing new magnet technology. He said those companies likely wouldn't invest heavily in a company merely for magnets in car speakers.

Niron is also working with the U.S. Department of Defense, which needs magnets for weapons, warplanes, submarines and more.

Castilloux said Niron has a few local competitors planning similar sized operations for rare earth magnets, and it's difficult to "come up against China, which is decades ahead on all fronts." But he said there is enough demand to sustain local production, especially with industry and government support boosting domestic efforts. The U.S. is placing a 25% import tariff on rare earth magnets starting in 2026.

The Niron plant in Minneapolis can produce about five tons of magnetic material per year, and Niron aims to make 1,500 tons at the planned Sartell facility. That's a small fraction of the more than 200,000 tons of traditional rare earth magnets sold globally last year, according to Adamas data.

Niron says it will employ 175 people at the Sartell plant and is negotiating subsidies with the city.

At Niron's event last week, leaders from GM and DOE spoke. So did Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and three members of Congress from Minnesota: McCollum, Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Daniel Bouie, principal of GM Ventures, said Niron's magnets are a "groundbreaking advance for our industry."

McCollum, the top Democrat on a defense subcommittee, said China's influence over rare earth metals is "a danger to our national security" and a "danger to our economic security."

"We need to do more about it, and Niron's doing just that," she said.