Adamas on site: Noveon Magnetics

In July, Adamas Intelligence toured Noveon Magnetics‘ NdFeB magnet manufacturing facility in San Marcos, Texas – a sprawling factory sitting on picturesque, cow-grazed acreage just off the I35 interstate.

What struck us on arrival was the sheer scale and sophistication of a company that many industry stakeholders and investors have never heard of.

Noveon has flown below the radar as a private entity for years, but it is now in full commercial ramp-up, shipping magnets to tier-one customers. We left convinced that the market dramatically underestimates how far along this company truly is.

The story behind Noveon is one for the history books. It’s a story of perseverance and ingenuity and grit that makes today’s commercial successes all the more rewarding.

In 2012, founders Scott Dunn, Peter Afiuny and the team saw strong demand growth ahead for rare earth permanent magnets and a desire for alternative sources of supply.

Boldly, they decided they were going to build a magnet factory in the U.S. – initially with a focus on making magnets from recycled feedstock – before evolving to a hybrid model that can toggle between recycled and primary inputs.

Armed with a portfolio of patents and IP, the team moved to China, rented an apartment in Shenyang and struck a deal to operate an idle magnet factory during overnight hours so they could tinker and learn. Good luck doing that today!

A year later and much the wiser, the founders returned to the U.S. with more conviction and determination than when they left. 

The company raised its first round through a private placement of capital and built its U.S. based pilot production facility in 2016. In 2019 Noveon broke ground on the HQ plant and began equipment installation in 2021. 

The company raised $80 million in 2023 led by NGP Energy Capital, and put more resources behind its commercial production of NdFeB magnets in late-2023.   

The plant itself is world-class, engineered from the ground up for scalability. Beside every piece of equipment we saw is a footprint and connections for a second piece. And beside the factory is enough acreage to accommodate a second building.

We expect Noveon will advance the site’s capacity towards 4,000 tonnes per annum in the near- to medium-term.

Without naming names, the company sources some of the highest-quality NdFeB flake available, and the downstream payoff is said to be clear: high yields, tight tolerances and performance specs the company claims are on par with leading legacy suppliers.

On arrival at the plant, we sat down with Peter Afiuny, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, who talked us through the company’s sourcing and commercial strategy. He articulated the importance of dysprosium to the collective Western magnet capacity build-up and talked about the company’s proactive efforts to secure alternative sources of supply.

Peter spoke frankly, openly and confidently of the opportunities and challenges ahead. He talked us through capabilities, showed us demagnetization curves and spec sheets, and demonstrated an impressively granular understanding of Noveon’s target markets by form factor, grade, scale and more.

Leadership has been pragmatic and disciplined about market entry. Rather than pursuing the increasingly crowded EV motor space, Noveon is targeting underserved demand pockets – automotive micromotors, industrial robots, datacenter cooling, and defense-related applications – where new entrants are less active.

The strategy is paying off. Since Adamas visited, Noveon has announced major supply deals, including landmark agreements with General Motors and ABB, that validate both technical maturity and commercial traction.

The company also announced a partnership with Lynas Rare Earths, producer of light and heavy rare earth oxides in Malaysia, aimed at locking in ex-China rare earth supplies.

Most recently, the company revealed plans for a second magnet factory in South Korea – proof that its model has potential to scale beyond U.S. borders.

Context matters: Adamas Intelligence forecasts U.S. rare earth magnet demand growing faster than any other region globally over the next decade, driven by electrification, robotics, defense modernization and more.

Emerging domestic producers like Noveon are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this wave. Yet, seasoned industry veterans caution that building and scaling a greenfield magnet facility can be brutal – requiring mastery of powder metallurgy, hydrogen processing and grain boundary engineering, all while navigating IP minefields and capital intensity.

In our view, Noveon’s leadership team and core investors embody the tenacity required: iterative, resilient and unafraid to fail forward.

As we left San Marcos, ending a trip that took us from the Mountain Pass mine to MP Materials’ magnet factory in Fort Worth to Noveon’s in San Marcos, we couldn’t shake the sense that we’re witnessing the birth of national champions in a sector long dominated by China.

Like MP Materials, Noveon isn’t just participating in the magnet reshoring narrative – it’s helping to write it. The GM deal was the headline we anticipated; the South Korean expansion, however, was one we didn’t.

For end-users scrambling to secure an alternative source of magnet supply, Noveon Magnetics deserves a hard look.

This isn’t a startup anymore. It’s a commercial manufacturer scaling at the frontier of a generational supply chain shift.