Apart from the enormous technical challenge of a "mine to magnet" concept, for producing high performance NdFeB magnets MP need 4 materials: neodymium, praseodymium ("NdPr"), dysprosium and terbium.

The latter two appear the Mountain Pass resource in such small trace amounts, that - if recoverable at all - the quantity of 20 years of mining would be equivalent to what MP would need to consume *every year* for producing 1,000 t of NdFeB magnets.

In other words, they would need to procure dysprosium metal and terbium metal externally, i.e. from China, like the Japanese magnet makers do.

From my current perspective it would be better for MP to continue shipping all their raw material to their single customer in China/Singapore (keep the money-making machine going at full capacity) and procure all material needed for magnet-making externally (e.g. Lynas, Neo, Iluka, China).

It would reduce risk (of failure to produce own on-spec product) and keep net working capital in check.