- Critical mineral supply vulnerability: Rare earth elements are vital for modern technology, but China currently dominates global production and refining, creating supply chain risks for Western allies.
- Investment opportunities in ex-China stocks: Efforts to reinforce Western supply chains are driving long-term market growth, highlighting the potential for exploration and development companies outside of China.
- Junior miners answering the call: Rare Earths Americas, with projects in Brazil and the US, and Leading Edge Materials, with a flagship project in Sweden, are key players working to diversify and democratize access to rare earth elements.
Among the vast variety of critical minerals, there are 17 metals in particular, key to electrically-generated motion in the form of permanent magnets, that underpin the technologies at the heart of everyday life, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines, robotics and defense systems, as well as consumer electronics, such as the laptop you’re reading this article on. They go by the enticing name of rare earth elements.
This article is disseminated in partnership with rare earth stocks Rare Earths Americas Inc. and Leading Edge Materials Corp. It is intended to inform investors and should not be taken as a recommendation or financial advice.
Rare earths, actually not rare at all, are rather concentrated in their location, with China accounting for about 60% of production and 90% of refining, with the human rights offender’s continuous game of hardball with the United States, as evidenced by ongoing export controls, making it difficult for Western allies to get their hands on these metals.
This concentration, in turn, highlights a potential premium on ex-China rare earth exploration, development and production stocks equipped to reinforce the Western supply chain and partake in the global market’s long-term tailwind, which is expected to add more than US$30 billion in value through 2034.
In the newest edition of Stockhouse’s Weekly Market Movers, I’ll bring two compelling stocks to your attention, whose high-quality, large-scale assets hold the potential to meaningfully democratize rare earth supply.
Rare Earths Americas
Rare Earths Americas, market cap US$200.34 million, is a junior miner advancing three flagship heavy rare earths projects in Brazil with ample upside to undercut the Chinese market, as well as that of politically unstable Myanmar, which supplies China with heavy rare earths feed for refining purposes.
The Alpha project is a 496-square-kilometre asset hosting shallow, large-scale mineralization, with an inferred resource of 202 million tons grading 1,520 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxides (TREO). Located only 120 km from the Ilhéus port in a mining-friendly community, Alpha is a prime target for resource conversion, as evidenced by an ongoing infill drilling program to support economic studies and advance on the path to construction.
The Constellation project hosts an inferred resource of 266 million tons grading 2,637 ppm TREO in the Poços de Caldas rare earths district, home to Meteoric Resources’ globally relevant 1.6-billion-ton Caldeira project. Constellation’s resource occupies only 59.5 sq. km of its 290-sq.-km land package.
The Homer project features a 6.5-km-wide niobium and rare earths system backed by near-surface drilling returning more than 2,000 ppm TREO and more than 400 ppm Nb₂O₅. The project resides in an area responsible for most of the world’s niobium supply, which primarily goes towards high-strength and superconductive alloys across the industrial landscape. An ongoing 15,000-m drilling program seeks to delineate an initial resource.
This trio is complemented by the more than 400,000-acre Foothills rare earths district in Georgia, USA, whose potential to boost the domestic supply chain is supported by surface samples up to 44% TREO, opening the door for near-term cash flow and phased development, leveraging ready access to rail, ports, skilled labour and low-cost power.
Drilling is also ongoing at Foothills to the tune of 28,000 m, funded by $15 million earmarked for the program, granting Rare Earths Americas a district-scale shot at delivering on the project’s multi-discovery potential.
According to the company’s August 2026 investor deck, its projects align well with the Western world’s processing capacity, thanks to a focus on monazite and ionic adsorption clay-type deposits, setting up a comprehensive leadership team, experienced in exploration and development across a diversity of commodities, for a busy stretch of years ahead, including planned resource estimates, economic studies and construction decisions across its portfolio.
Rare Earths Americas stock (NYSEAM: REA) last traded at US$10.04, giving back 47.16% since inception in May 2026. The company had a tight 19.95 million shares outstanding at the time of writing.
Donald Swartz, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), joined Ricki Lee to catch investors up on recent developments. Watch the interview here.
Leading Edge Materials
Last up is Leading Edge Materials, market cap C$62.21 million, a junior mining company advancing three critical minerals projects in the European Union with robust value propositions.
The company’s flagship Norra Kärr heavy rare earths project in Sweden, one of the world’s top-10 mining jurisdictions according to the Fraser Institute, hosts an indicated resource of 110 million tons averaging 0.5% TREO, making it Europe’s largest heavy rare earths deposit and one of the largest in the world. The Swedish Geological Survey officially recognized Norra Kärr as a project of national interest in 2011. A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) substantiated this interest in 2021, estimating 5,341 tons of annual rare earth oxides production over 26 years, averaging $206 million in annual EBITDA at initial costs of only $487 million. A 25-year mining lease followed in July 2026, aligning the project with the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, including the goal of reducing the continent’s virtually complete reliance on rare earth imports.
Leading Edge complements its early-stage rare earths leadership with the Woxna Graphite mine, also in Sweden, a built and permitted facility ready to fulfill demand for another Chinese-controlled critical mineral. A 2021 PEA estimates 7,435 tons of annual production over a 15-year mine life, averaging $49 million in annual EBITDA at initial costs of only $121 million, with an ongoing drilling program designed to expand the known deposit.
Then there’s the 90%-owned Bihor Sud nickel and cobalt project in Romania, where initial prospecting and sampling of historical mine workings turned up high grades up to 28% nickel, 17.75 ppm gold and more than 6% copper, as per Leading Edge’s July 2026 investor deck, within a 36-sq.-km mineralized system including several sulphide occurrences.
Looking ahead, Leading Edge is working on a pre-feasibility study at Norra Kärr, in parallel with environmental permitting and a pipeline of partnership engagements, including a recent memorandum of understanding with Trillium Resources contemplating the supply of nepheline syenite and aegirine byproducts for numerous industrial markets, all of this in the service of earning the rare earths project strategic status in the EU.
The company’s leadership team of accomplished mining professionals certainly measures up to the task, backed by technical and senior executive experience in the Swedish, Canadian and US mining industries, including tenures with Rio Tinto, Ivanhoe Mines, Kinross Gold and Mandalay Resources (acquired by Alkane in 2025), plus a recently closed C$6 million capital raise at an almost 20% premium to the share price quoted below.
Leading Edge Materials stock (TSXV:LEM) last traded at C$0.21, giving back 52.27% year-over-year and 36.36% since 2021.
CEO, Kurt Budge, spoke with Ricki Lee about Norra Kärr’s promise as a pillar of European industrial security. Watch the interview here.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Monday for a new edition of Weekly Market Movers, where I delve into companies that joined Stockhouse for an interview over the past week. Here’s the most recent article, 2 new stocks propelled by profits and specialized technology, in case you missed it.
Join the discussion: Find out what investors are saying about these rare earth stocks on the Rare Earths Americas Inc. and Leading Edge Materials Corp. Bullboards and explore the rest of Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.