Energy Fuels agrees $1.9B VAC acquisition, Pentagon commits $725M to U.S. separation facility
While the $1.9 billion price tag is aggressive, a combination of VAC, ASM and the new facility positions Energy Fuels for vertical integration alongside MP Materials and USA Rare Earth. If both deals close, it fields the first Western chain with throughput at every stage – feedstock, separation, metal and alloy, and magnets.
Energy Fuels announced a definitive agreement on June 23rd to acquire Germany’s Vacuumschmelze (VAC) from private equity owner Ara Partners for $718 million cash and shares, putting a $1.9 billion value on the deal. Regulatory approvals, including foreign-investment and antitrust clearances, are expected to push completion to early 2027.
VAC is one of a handful of ex-China businesses with at-scale sintered NdFeB and SmCo permanent magnet production. Founded in 1923 and headquartered in Hanau, Germany, the company holds over 400 patents and serves more than 1,000 customers across defense, automotive, and industrial applications. Its Sumter, South Carolina plant, currently the largest permanent magnet facility in the United States, runs at 2,000 tonnes per annum of NdFeB block capacity, is built to 4,000 tpa, and carries a pathway to 12,000 tpa.
A week before the VAC deal, Energy Fuels disclosed a conditional $725 million, 20-year loan commitment from the U.S. Dept of War’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) for a domestic separation and metallization facility. The OSC financing was a “material development” for the pending Energy Fuels–Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) acquisition (announced in January 2026, valued at approximately $300M). ASM postponed its shareholder scheme meetings, originally scheduled for June 22, 2026, to prepare and send updated disclosure to its shareholders via a supplementary scheme booklet.
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L'avis d'Adamas :
While the $1.9 billion price tag is aggressive, a combination of VAC, ASM and the new facility positions Energy Fuels for vertical integration alongside MP Materials and USA Rare Earth. If both deals close, it fields the first Western chain with throughput at every stage – feedstock, separation, metal and alloy, and magnets.
ASM’s Korean Metals Plant is one of the only producers of NdPr, Dy and Tb metal and NdFeB alloy outside China, expanding to 3,600 tpa and its flowsheet underpins ASM’s planned 2,000 tpa American Metals Plant.
Upstream, the fully permitted Dubbo project in New South Wales adds a 20-year orebody with letters of interest that add up to over $1 billion from U.S., Canadian and Australian export credit agencies.
VAC’s South Carolina factory at an expanded 12,000 tpa is the anchor for that feedstock and metal capacity and the SmCo line adds a defense-grade capability almost entirely absent in Western supply. The OSC-backing for U.S. separation capacity rounds out the logistics.
Energy Fuels has a lot to do simultaneously: closing ASM, fulfilling OSC loan conditions, building a separation plant, reaching FID and funding a Dubbo construction, and integrating a century-old precision manufacturer with widespread operations. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and EU foreign investment authorities will scrutinize the transaction, but commercial anti-trust clearance should be routine.
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