High-purity iron producer Hertha Metals has broken ground on its Chalyx plant, which is the US's first commercial plant for magnet-grade high-purity iron.

The Texas-based plant will use a single-step process to produce 10 000 t/y of high-purity iron for rare earth magnets and steel for US manufacturers.

The company has already produced initial quantities of high-purity iron from its next-door Pi100 pilot plant.

Hertha explains its process as heating iron-ore and natural gas in a single furnace, with controlled process chemistry producing either liquid steel or high-purity iron.

The process works with any grade of iron-ore, including the lower-grade fines that blast furnaces and direct reduction plants cannot use. This process also produces iron and steel at 25% lower costs, on average, that blast furnaces, while ensuring safer operations and at least 50% lower emissions.

Hertha founder and CEO Dr Laureen Meroueh says she founded the company to significantly improve how the world makes iron and steel from ore in an industry that has enormous room for innovation.

She adds that over the last two years the Hertha team has worked relentlessly to prove the promise of the single-step technology.

"With Chalyx, we take the next step: proving the business and demonstrating that our technology can deliver commercially. We’re starting with high-purity iron to fill a critical gap in the domestic rare earth magnet supply chain, but the vision reaches much further.

"Successful commercial operations here will lay the foundation for our first 500 000-ton-a-year steel mill. For me, that is what makes today so meaningful: seeing persistence become the foundation for a new generation of iron and steelmaking.”

For context, neodymium iron boron magnets, which are the world's strongest commercially available permanent rare earth magnet alloy, comprise 70% high-purity iron by weight. These magnets are used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, data centres, robotics and defence systems.

Currently, 94% of the world's high-purity iron is produced in China.

The $100-million Chalyx plant will source iron-ore feedstock from Minnesota's Iron Range and natural gas from producers in Texas. Commissioning is targeted for late 2027 before commercial production will start in early 2028.