China’s Aggressive Ban Led to a 840% Stock Explosion. Could This Under-the-Radar Company Be Next In Line?
IEA: $6.5 Trillion at Risk When China’s Rare Earth Truce Expires in January[1] — and Washington Is Already Writing Checks. Who Stands to Gain?
U.S.-listed companies with American assets could potentially reap a “special advantage” in the market as the federal government puts its finger on the scales to combat Chinese rare earth dominance. As government becomes increasingly involved in this sector, certain individual stocks rocketed as much as 2,618%[2]
On July 10, 2025, the Pentagon did something remarkable.
It became the largest shareholder of a publicly-traded rare earth company.
The Department of Defense invested $400 million in MP Materials… took a stake of roughly 15%… agreed to buy 100% of the output of its planned new magnet factory for ten years… and guaranteed a floor price of $110 per kilogram for the rare earth oxide used in magnets.[3]
The stock surged 50% in a single session, boosting its market cap roughly $2.5 billion.
Five days later, Apple announced a $500 million partnership with MP Materials, and shares spiked another 20% to close at an all-time high.[4]
“MP Materials rose more than 9x from its 2024 low to its 2025 high after the Pentagon and Apple signed on.”
That’s two of the most recognizable institutions in America backing one rare earth producer within a single week and the market re-priced it in real time.
MP Materials wasn’t alone.
Beijing kept tightening its export controls on critical and rare earth minerals[5], and Washington answered with equity stakes, loans and price guarantees, and broad support for domestic producers and developers.
Almost every time a new government-backed deal or report hit the headlines, more investors piled in.
Across the group, stock after stock posted large gains.
Perpetua Resources surged 1,240% in two years, after Washington backed it with a $6.9 million US Army grant[6]and, later, a $2.9 billion Export-Import Bank loan[7]…
“Perpetua Resources surged more than 13x over the next two years as Washington moved to back domestic critical minerals.”
Trilogy Metals skyrocketed 2,618% in only eighteen months after the U.S. Department of War took a roughly 10% equity stake in the company for $35.6 million[8]…
“Trilogy Metals skyrocketed 27x, posting the single largest gain of any rare earth or critical minerals stock in this group.”
NioCorp Developments — which is building a domestic source of niobium and the rare earth element scandium in Nebraska — climbed 777% in less than a year, after the Department of Defense awarded its Elk Creek subsidiary up to $10 million toward the project[9]…
“NioCorp Developments climbed nearly 8x as Washington moved to back domestic critical mineral and rare earth supply chains.”
And Critical Metals Corp. soared 2,087% in just over four months, after Reuters reported that Washington was weighing an equity stake in its Greenland rare earth project[10]….
“NioCorp Developments climbed nearly 8x as Washington moved to back domestic critical mineral and rare earth supply chains.”
If you missed out on these gains, I’d urge you to pay close attention to what comes next.
In many ways, the crisis those rallies were born from has only gotten worse[11].
And my research shows the U.S. government’s growing role in the private sector may be just getting started, with billions more set to flow toward companies building domestic supplies of critical minerals, including rare earths.
Washington Has Stopped Talking and Started Writing Checks
For decades, rare earths were an afterthought in Washington.
But since mid-2025, the U.S. federal government has moved money into this corner of the market at a pace I’ve never seen before.
Here’s just a partial list of what I believe is the most relevant:
- MP Materials: $400 million in preferred equity plus a $150 million loan. The Pentagon became the company’s largest shareholder, at roughly 15%, guaranteed a 10-year, $110/kg price floor, and agreed to buy 100% of its magnet output for ten years.[12]
- Vulcan Elements and ReElement: $1.4 billion in loans to build a 10,000-tonne-a-year magnet facility, with the government receiving warrants.[13]
- USA Rare Earth: $1.6 billion letter of interest plus a $1.5 billion private placement made up of $277 million in federal funding and a proposed $1.3 billion loan.[14]
- Phoenix Tailings: $500 million conditional loan to fund a scale-up from 40 to 4,000 tonnes a year by 2027.[15]
- Energy Fuels: $725 million conditional loan with a 20-year repayment term.[16]
- USA Rare Earth (Serra Verde): $750 million within a $1.55 billion structure. A 15-year offtake agreement with the first-ever price floors for dysprosium and terbium.[17]
And that’s only the deals with names attached.
Behind them sits a much bigger pool of money.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025, gave the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital authority to lend up to $100 billion for critical minerals, including rare earths.[18]
Then, in February 2026, came Project Vault — a $12 billion critical minerals stockpile, backed by a $10 billion Export-Import Bank loan.[19]
That loan alone is more than double the largest financing in EXIM’s history.[20]
The U.S. Government Is Paying a Hefty Premium to
Lock Down Domestic Supplies of Rare Earths
Remember that $110/kg floor Washington guaranteed MP Materials for the rare earth oxide used in magnets?
The 2025 average market price was about $69.[21]
In other words, the floor sits roughly 60% above the market.
That’s a subsidy, in writing.
A senior Pentagon official put it bluntly in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 24, 2026:
”For decades, we have outsourced and offshored mining and processing, creating a strategic vulnerability of the highest order… this control provides Beijing with the ability to weaponize these supply chains… this is not a theoretical risk. It is a clear and present danger to our national security.”[22]
— Michael Cadenazzi Jr., Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy
When the Pentagon uses words like “clear and present danger,” money usually follows.
And I see no reason to believe Washington’s rare earth buying spree will end anytime soon, because the problem behind all this spending is about to get a lot harder to ignore.
With China’s export controls tightening and a new Pentagon sourcing rule taking effect on January 1, 2027[23], the government’s spending here is likely to keep growing.
This is driving an underground (literally) megatrend in domestic rare earth stocks[24], and, though not every rare earth company is going to go to the moon, several companies in the sector have seen explosive growth over the last year.
In fact, these rare earth companies have seen such impressive growth that the Mining Stocks team started scouring the juniors to find what our team believes could be a small cap with unique advantages and potentially explosive upside.
And a small company called Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO), with a 100% U.S.-based rare earth project, could be in a great position to ride the megatrend.
This company has an agreement with an already-operating quarry in West Texas, about 68 miles southeast of El Paso, which gives it access to up to 4 million tons of already-mined material.
Early test work shows this material can be processed using a special technique that skips one of the dirtiest, most expensive steps most rare earth projects still depend on.
It’s one of only a handful of rare earth projects that’s able to use this unique method.
What’s more, Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) is one of only a few companies with existing potential rare earth feedstock on site, ready to process at scale once developed, on American soil.
Yet, it’s currently trading at a market value that’s a fraction of its publicly-traded more established peers.
To understand why that gap exists — and why it might not last — you need to see just how deeply rare earths are already woven into daily life, and how exposed America really is.
The Elements That Comprise the Backnone of the Modern World Could Be At Risk
If you’ve never given much thought to rare earths, you’re in good company.
In one national survey, only 38% of Americans said they were familiar with the term “critical minerals,” yet we all touch them every day.[25]
For example, a smartphone contains 16 of the 17 rare earth elements.[26]
Your phone wouldn’t be able to vibrate without neodymium and dysprosium.
Roughly a third or more of MRI scans, of which about 40 million are performed in the U.S. every year, contain a rare earth called gadolinium in the contrast injection.[27]
And 98% of today’s electric vehicles run on motors built with rare earth magnets.[28]
Then of course, there’s artificial intelligence, which wouldn’t exist without rare earths.
Fans, pumps, and motors in AI cooling systems rely on neodymium-iron-boron magnets, often enhanced with dysprosium and terbium for high-temperature stability.
Data center cooling is projected to grow from $11.1 billion in 2025 to $24.2 billion by 2032[29], driving surging demand for rare earth permanent magnets.
Now let’s talk about where they matter most for national defense.
The Weight of a Warship
The figures cited by the Pentagon, Government Accountability Office, and Congressional Research Service put the rare earth content of America’s most advanced weapons at about:
- 920 pounds in every F-35 Lightning fighter jet[30]
- 5,200 pounds in every DDG-51 Aegis destroyer[31]
- 9,200 pounds in every Virginia-class submarine[32]
Rare earth magnets steer missile fins… drive ship propulsion motors… power laser rangefinders, sonar, radar and night vision… and make satellites possible.
And right now, the majority of the supply chain behind all of it runs through China.
The International Energy Agency estimates $6.5 trillion in downstream production outside China is at risk if China’s rare-earth export controls are fully enforced[33]…
With the U.S. and Europe absorbing nearly half of that hit.
The “Choke Point” That Keeps the Pentagon Up at Night
China refines about 91% of the world’s rare earths, and it made 94% of the world’s sintered permanent magnets in 2024 — up from roughly 50% in 2005.[34]
Sintering is the process of pressing rare-earth powder into a mold and heating it just below its melting point, fusing the particles into a single solid block without ever liquefying the metal.
It’s how the strongest class of rare-earth magnets gets made…
The kind that goes into EV motors, fighter jets, and precision-guided weapons.
The problem isn’t that the rest of the world lacks the rocks.
The problem is that most of the dirty, expensive, technically difficult work of turning those rocks into usable oxides and magnets has been done in one country for a generation.
And that country has started using its position as leverage in a dangerous way.
Every Time China Tightens Its Grip, This Trade Gets More Urgent
“China Has Stopped Exporting Rare Earths To Everyone”
– Fortune April 14, 2025[35]
“It’s Time For U.S. To Treat Rare Earths As Power. China Already Does.”
– CNBC June 29, 2025[36]
“DOD Looks to Establish ‘Mine- to-Magnet’ Supply Chain for Rare Earth Materials”
– U.S. Department of Defense March 11, 2024[37]
“China Is Using Its Control Over Rare Earths to Push Back Against Trump”
– Bloomberg June 11, 2025[38]
“JPMorgan to invest up to $10 billion in US national security as part of $1.5 trillion pledge.”
– J.P. Morgan October 13, 2025[39]
Since 2023, China has been tightening the screw one turn at a time.
It started with a ban on exporting the technology used to make rare-earth magnets.[40]
Then came a first-ever U.S.-only ban on gallium, germanium, and antimony.[41]
By April 2025, China had restricted seven medium and heavy rare earths, which caused its magnet exports to the world to collapse by a staggering 70% year over year.[42]
That October, China added five more elements to the list, bringing the total to 12 of the 17 rare earths, along with a rule reaching foreign-made magnets that contain Chinese-origin material.[43]
Days later, at a summit in Busan, Presidents Trump and Xi struck a one-year truce and China suspended the new controls.[44]
But the pressure never really let up.
In June 2026, China placed MP Materials, USA Rare Earth and nine other U.S. companies under a full export ban.[45]And by late summer, Chinese suppliers had already begun refusing some U.S.-bound shipments, truce or no truce.[46]
The Busan truce is set to expire on January 10, 2027 — at which time, the grip could tighten even more, and the rare earth supply chain could deteriorate even more rapidly.
The numbers behind China’s supply squeeze are already stark.
For example, China exported just 17 tonnes of yttrium to the U.S. over eight months in 2025, down from 333 tonnes in the eight months before.[47]
Yttrium is used in jet-engine coatings and in the lasers doctors use after cataract surgery.
Unfortunately, it could be about to get a whole lot worse.
Under the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act signed into law on December 18, 2025, the rule tightens further.
Starting January 1, 2027, the Pentagon won’t just be barred from buying materials that are “melted or produced” in China, as under the old rule. It will also be barred from buying materials “mined, refined, separated” in China.[48]
So what happens when Washington is legally barred from buying rare earths from the one country that controls virtually all the world’s supply?
History Shows This Type of Pattern Could Lead to Massive Capital Movement
In September 2010, after a dispute with Japan over a fishing boat, China halted rare earth shipments to Tokyo for roughly two months.[49]
China controlled more than 93% of global rare earth mining at the time.[50]
Over the next 31 months, the price of dysprosium oxide skyrocketed from $91 a kilogram in January 2009 to $2,377 a kilogram by August 2011.[51]
Source: https://www.mining.com/featured-article/charts-rare-earth-export-restrictions-price-spikes-and-the-risks-of-demand-destruction/
The U.S. later won a case at the WTO after citing how American manufacturers had paid as much as three times more than their Chinese competitors for the exact same rare earths.[52]
But the damage was already done.
What we are living through now looks like it could be the sequel, with higher stakes and a far bigger customer list.
The Demand Story Wall Street Hasn’t Priced In Yet
Most commodity stories worry about demand.
Will people keep buying? Will prices hold? Will a global event kill the buying spree?
Rare earths have the opposite problem. For example…
- The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that by 2035, about 94% of the world’s dysprosium demand and 85% of its terbium demand will come from EV and wind turbine magnets alone…[53]
- Global demand for the neodymium-iron-boron magnets inside EV motors… wind turbines… robots… and missiles is expected to grow from 119,000 tonnes in 2020 to 387,000 tonnes by 2030 — and to hit 750,000 tonnes by 2050…[54]
- Over 40,000 tonnes of unmet demand for neodymium and praseodymium oxides alone are forecasted by 2035.[55]
Meanwhile, the U.S. still depends heavily on imports.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates net import reliance for rare earth compounds and metals at 67% in 2025, with 71% of imports from 2021 to 2024 coming from China.[56]
The need for U.S.-based supplies of rare earths hasn’t gone unnoticed by the public.
In a recent Harris Poll, 83% of Americans said increased domestic minerals production is essential to economic and national security[57], while 70% of Americans want the U.S. to ramp up domestic minerals production to reduce reliance on China.[58]
So demand is there, government support is there, and public opinion is there.
What’s missing is supply that’s built and running on American soil.
And that’s the gap Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) is positioning itself to help fill.
With a rare-earth-bearing quarry sitting directly in the path of accelerating demand and federal spending, it’s the kind of strategic asset Washington may not be able to ignore any longer.
Yet, it’s currently trading at a fraction of the valuation of its more established peers.
After extensive research into this story, I believe it has significant upside potential and that’s why I believe it’s worth serious due diligence today.
In my view, seven key factors set it apart from other rare earth stories, and underscore why it could be one of the most valuable rare earth assets in America.
Seven Reasons Tactical Resources Could Become a Breakout Story in America’s Race to Secure Rare Earths
Reason #1: Its Peak Project Sits Inside a Working, Fully Permitted Texas Quarry — Not a Grassroots Exploration Story
One of the biggest risks in mining is the long, slow road before anything gets built.
Years of drilling… years of permitting… years of waiting for roads, power lines, and rail spurs.
Most junior miners burn through their cash and dilute their shareholders long before they ever see a dollar of revenue.
Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) can potentially skip most of that road.
Its Peak Project sits inside the Sierra Blanca Quarry, a fully permitted operation located about 68 miles southeast of El Paso, Texas, in Hudspeth County.
The quarry has been crushing rock and selling it as ballast for Union Pacific’s railway for about 20 years — so highway and rail access, power, and other infrastructure is already in place.
It’s also located in one of the friendliest mining states in America.
Texas regulators have granted more than 50,000 permits in the last six years alone.[59]
The Peak Project sits on 1,800 acres covered by mining leases under an agreement Tactical Resources signed with the Sierra Blanca Quarry in 2026.
Tactical Resources still has to expand metallurgical and geological assessments, build a processing plant and get it running, and development work at the Peak Project is still ahead of it.
But being inside a working quarry means a lot of the time and money other rare earth hopefuls still have to spend on drilling, permitting, building roads and rail is already behind it.
There’s another advantage that comes with an operating quarry that most investors overlook.
Reason #2: The Raw Material Is Already Mined, Sitting on the Surface — Potentially Bypassing One of Rare Earth Mining’s Biggest Costs
Every day the quarry runs, it crushes and screens rock.
The big pieces get sold as railway ballast, while the finely crushed material that’s left over — what the industry calls “tailings” — gets piled up in storage.
For the quarry, that powder is worth next to nothing.
But for Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO), it’s the potential feedstock other rare earth companies spend years and millions of dollars trying to find and access.
Samples of this material have shown elevated levels of rare earth elements.
Tactical Resources has locked up rights to 4 million tons of already-mined tailings at Sierra Blanca Quarry from its two decades of operation. It’s already converted the first 1.5 million tons into outright ownership, with rights to the rest secured under a 10-year agreement.
Plus, it holds an exclusive option to purchase all interests in the mining lease for the Peak Project — including the quarry operations, not just the rare earth rights.
In other words, the company doesn’t have to wait for a drill bit to find something, because the potential feedback material is already dug up, crushed, and sitting on the surface.
So while Tactical Resources hasn’t filed a formal mineral resource estimate for the Peak Project, and further development is required, it already has material in hand and early test work.
That’s a starting point, not a finish line.
But it’s a starting point most rare earth companies would envy.
Having the potential feedstock already in hand is a major advantage for Tactical Resources, and it’s one that’s magnified even further by how they plan to process it.
Reason #3: A Rare Earth Processing Method That Skips One of the Dirtiest, Most Expensive Steps in the China Playbook
Digging rare earths out of the ground is the easy part.
One of the real bottlenecks that decides whether a deposit ever becomes an actual, producing mine is the cracking, roasting, and leaching of that rock to pull the elements out of it.
Traditionally, that means shipping a mineral concentrate overseas to China[60].
That’s the nasty, energy-intensive, expensive stage of the process — and it’s the one that’s kept the U.S. dependent on Beijing for the better part of 40 years[61].
Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO), however, may be able to skip that step entirely.
Its Peak Project is one of only a handful of hard-rock deposits in the world considered amenable to direct-leach extraction, which means the rock can go straight into a simple leach wash that pulls the rare earth elements into solution in a single step.
No cracking… no roasting… no overseas trip required.
Initial maximum extraction test work, reviewed by a Qualified Person — an independent, credentialed mining professional required to verify this kind of technical disclosure — found total rare earth and yttrium extraction levels ranging from 88% to 93%[62].
To be clear, that’s a read on how amenable this rock is to processing — not a resource estimate, a reserve, or a production guarantee — but it points to something that matters a great deal in this industry.
A simpler, cheaper, and faster potential path from rock to product than the traditional flow sheet most competitors are stuck with.
And because that kind of processing is modular, Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) isn’t forced to build one massive plant before it can produce anything at all. The Company believes that capacity can scale up, or down, without the enormous upfront capital required by a traditional operation.
All of this could translate to anticipated lower costs, faster timelines, and a cleaner story to tell both regulators and its customers.
So while much of the industry is still trying to figure out how to get out from under China’s grip on processing, the Peak Project may have already answered that question.
And that brings us to the next obvious question: what exactly is in this rock?
Reason #4: The Assays Show the Presence of a Full Menu of Rare Earths and Other Critical Minerals
Tactical Resources’ (NASDAQ: TREO) 2022 technical report[63] includes metallurgical test work on three composite samples of tailings from the Sierra Blanca Quarry.
Those samples showed the presence of a variety of critical minerals:
- Total rare earth oxides plus yttrium oxide: 362 mg/kg — the combined headline figure across the sampled tailings
- Yttrium: 153 mg/kg — core ingredient in YAG lasers used in eye surgery, and in heat-resistant jet-engine coatings
- Cerium: 39.7 mg/kg — used in refinery catalysts, catalytic converters and glass polishing
- Neodymium: 21.3 mg/kg — backbone of the strongest permanent magnets, used in EV motors, wind turbines, phones and missiles
- Dysprosium: about 15 mg/kg — added to magnets so they keep working at high heat, as in aircraft and submarines
- Erbium and Erbium Assay: about 12.5 mg/kg — used in the fiber-optic amplifiers that carry internet traffic across oceans, and in medical and dental lasers
- Lithium (co-product): 190 mg/kg — powers EV and grid batteries
To be clear, these are assay results from a small number of test samples, not a mineral resource, a reserve, or a claim about how much of any element can be produced.
But the list is telling – 14 of 177 REEs appear in Tactical’s initial samples.
Neodymium and dysprosium are two of the critical ingredients in magnets.
Yttrium is one of the elements whose exports to the U.S. from China were slashed to the bone in 2025, from 333 tonnes to only 17 tonnes.
And lithium riding along as a coproduction adds another potential strategic metal to the mix.
This isn’t just a list of elements; it’s a cross-section of the materials the defense, energy, and battery industries are racing to secure outside of China.
No wonder Tactical Resources isn’t the only company that’s noticed this part of Texas.
Reason #5: The Multi-Billion-Dollar Rare Earth Neighbor Two Miles Away Is Sitting on the Same Geology
Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) isn’t operating in a vacuum.
Just two miles to the northwest of its Peak Project sits Round Top, a rare earth project operated by USA Rare Earth, with both projects within the same Sierra Blanca geological complex.[64]
That means both lie within the same cluster of rhyolite domes that pushed these rare earth minerals to the surface millions of years ago. And in hard rock rare earth deposits, that kind of shared geological formation often matters more than distance on a map.
It’s potentially a signal the mineralization isn’t a one-off pocket, but part of a broader system.
USA Rare Earth is one of the names investors have watched most closely over the past year.
In January 2026, it announced a $1.6 billion letter of interest under the federal CHIPS program — made up of $277 million in federal funding and a proposed $1.3 billion loan, alongside a $1.5 billion private placement.[65]
And the federal interest didn’t stop there.
In August 2026, USA Rare Earth announced a $750 million investment from the Department of War as part of a $1.55 billion package tied to Serra Verde’s rare earth output. This includes the first-ever price floors for dysprosium and terbium, two of the hardest-to-source rare earths.[66]
That’s two major deals from the U.S. government in seven months, both aimed at the company sitting just two miles from Tactical Resources’ (NASDAQ: TREO) Peak Project.
In other words, Washington is paying close attention to rare earths in this corner of West Texas.
Of course, sitting on promising ground next to a multi-billion-dollar neighbor doesn’t magically turn rock into a producing mine.
FROM THE COMPANY TO YOU
Corporate Presentation
Free Corporate Presentation · Nasdaq: TREO
1.5 Million Tonnes Already Mined: Inside the Texas Quarry Built for America’s Rare Earth Push
Reason #6: The Leadership Team That’s Already Helped Build Producing Mines Other People Only Talk About
You’ve probably never heard the name Kuljit “Jeet” Basi.
But this mining and metallurgical engineer has already done something most rare earth executives only talk about doing. He’s helped build producing mines, from the ground up, on three continents.
Basi didn’t start in a boardroom, he started in the pit.
Over more than 20 years in mining and metals, he cut his teeth in base metals — copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc — working for Teck Resources before spending a decade inside Goldcorp and Newmont’s precious metals operations.
During this time, Basi was part of the corporate technical services and project development team that helped build the Peñasquito mine in Mexico… the Cerro Negro mine in southern Argentina… and worked on further projects at Red Lake, Ontario, Canada…and at the Wharf and Cripple Creek mines in the USA.
Those aren’t exploration projects sitting in a filing cabinet, they’re mines that actually produce metal — the kind of execution that separates a real mining company from a paper one.
It was on a later project, chasing lithium and uranium, that Basi first crossed paths with rare earths and realized just how geopolitically loaded this basket of elements really is.
That realization led him to help found Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) in 2021.
Today, Basi serves as President and Executive Chairman, the operator in the room who’s actually stood inside a mine while it was being built.
He’s not doing it alone.
Ranjeet Sundher, CEO, brings more than 25 years developing private and public companies across technology, mining, resources, and software. He’s the corporate experience behind turning Tactical Resources from a private venture into a NASDAQ-listed company.
And behind them, on the Board of Directors, sits a deep bench of mining-industry veterans.
Director Mark Mukhija has held roles at Teck Resources, Barrick, BHP and TransAlta.
Director Mathew Chatterton spent 12 years inside the mining division of FLSmidth, one of the mining industry’s largest equipment and engineering firms.
Director Garry Clark is a past director of the Ontario Prospectors Association and former member of Ontario’s Mining Act Committee, with extensive experience managing large-scale exploration and development programs internationally.
Bottom line, this is not a startup team learning on the job.
These are seasoned operators who’ve built mines and financed their way onto public markets.
So the next natural question is how is the market actually pricing this opportunity today?
Reason #7: A Valuation Gap the Market Hasn’t Closed Yet
Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) currently trades at a market cap of about $55 million.
To put it in perspective, here’s a sampling of how the market is valuing U.S. rare earth companies right now[67][68]:
- Lynas Rare Earths (OTC: LYSDY): $9.06 billion market cap (producer)
- MP Materials (NYSE: MP): $8.21 billion market cap (producer)
- USA Rare Earth (Nasdaq: USAR): $3.09 billion market cap (developer)
- Iluka Resources (OTC: ILKAY): $1.6 billion market cap
- Critical Metals Corp. (Nasdaq: CRML): $1.01 billion market cap (developer)
MP Materials alone is more than 160 times larger than Tactical by market value.
Of course, these are not equal companies and I’m not saying they are.
MP Materials, for example, is a producing company with a long operating history, revenue, and a Pentagon partnership that includes a price floor and a 10-year purchase commitment.
But this list goes to show how the market currently values U.S. rare earth exposure at different stages, and how wide the range is.
Now let’s narrow that lens to the one comparison that matters most to this conversation.
Tactical Resources’ (NASDAQ: TREO) Peak Project sits two miles from USA Rare Earth’s Round Top project, inside the same geological complex.
USA Rare Earth trades at a market cap of about $3.78 billion, while Tactical Resources trades at about $55 million. That’s not a modest gap — that’s two companies working adjacent, geologically connected land, valued nearly 70 times apart.
To be clear, the two companies are not directly comparable (USA Rare Earth’s asset portfolio includes metal manufacturing, magnetic making, and overseas mining assets), and Tactical Resources should not trade anywhere near where USA Rare Earth does.
USA Rare Earth has secured nearly $4 billion in combined federal funding and private capital since January 2026 alone — the $1.6 billion CHIPS Program letter of interest, a $1.5 billion private placement, and a $750 million investment from the Department of War.
Tactical Resources hasn’t secured anything like that, and hasn’t filed a mineral resource estimate, so the two companies are at very different stages.
What the gap in market caps shows is how much value the market is willing to assign to this specific stretch of West Texas once a project starts checking the boxes capital markets actually rely upon.
Tactical Resources’ initial extraction test results are a first step in that direction.
The next boxes are the ones the leadership team itself has flagged — including establishing a mineral resource…building a working demo plant… bringing on downstream partners… and getting Tactical Resources’ own rare earth material into a US-made magnet.
If they continue to check those boxes, then Wall Street could start pricing this company differently, and the potential upside from a $55 million valuation could be significant.
Gaps like this rarely stay open forever, which is why I believe now is the time to do your due diligence on Tactical Resources, before those boxes start getting checked off
Bottom Line: Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) Could
Be on the Path to Becoming America’s Next Rare Earth
Breakout Story
Now, I want to be straight with you: Tactical Resources is an early-stage company, and early-stage mining stocks carry real risk.
It hasn’t filed a mineral resource estimate, its test work is still preliminary, and it will likely need to raise more capital to hit its milestones.
Small-cap stocks like TREO can also swing hard in both directions on very little news.
But that’s exactly why the opportunity looks the way it does.
If every risk here were already resolved, Tactical Resources likely wouldn’t be trading at a $55 million market cap.
The real question isn’t whether there’s risk. It’s whether the potential reward is worth a small, sensible position, sized with money you can afford to put at risk.
Tactical Resources already stacks up in ways most small mining stories don’t.
It sits two miles from a rare earth project the U.S. government has backed with billions… it has access to up to 4 million tons of previously mined tailings, sitting at surface, that appear to contain enriched levels of REEs… and its processing route may skip one of the single dirtiest, most expensive, most China-dependent steps.
Any one of those on its own would be worth a second look.
Together, they’re the kind of setup I don’t believe the market has fully priced in yet.
Elsewhere in this sector, plenty of companies are now branding themselves as “critical minerals” stories. Many of them are years from production and need hundreds of millions to billions in capital just to get there.
Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) is starting from a very different position.
Here’s the investment case, in short:
- A rare earth problem Washington is spending billions on. China refines about 91% of the world’s rare earths, and the U.S. government has committed record sums to break that dependence.
- A demand story as much as a supply story. Global demand for neodymium-iron-boron magnets alone — those inside EV motors, wind turbines, robotics, and modern defense systems — is expected to grow by over 225% this decade.[69]
- A working quarry with feedstock already mined. Ownership of 1.5 million tons of tailings and potential feedstock — with rights to about 2.5 million more tons — with an exclusive option on the mining lease and quarry operation.
- A processing route that skips one of the dirtiest steps. Early test work showed max extraction rates of up to 88% to 93% total rare earth plus yttrium.
- Assays that include neodymium, dysprosium, yttrium, praseodymium, erbium and lithium. These are not a resource estimate, but they show what the samples contain.
- A neighbor that’s drawing capital. USA Rare Earth’s Round Top project is two miles away, sharing the same geological formation.
- A market value of about $55 million, at a time when other U.S. rare earth names are valued in the hundreds of millions to billions.
In my view, that adds up to an unusual setup: a real asset, a clear policy tailwind, a short list of near-term milestones, and a very small market value.
I believe that combination offers the potential for significant upside.
This is a company that was built for this moment.
Start Your Due Diligence on Tactical Resources Immediately
Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) isn’t a name you’ll hear discussed on the major financial networks yet — not on Fox Business, in the Wall Street Journal, or in Barron’s (at least not yet).
But that tends to change quickly in this sector, and usually all at once.
It could change if geopolitical tensions with China flare up again…
If an institutional investor takes a position…
When Tactical Resources reports new metallurgical or resource results…
Or when it achieves what CEO, Ranjeet Sundher, has already told investors he’s chasing:
“What I’m most fired up about is saying our material from our site was processed, separated, and is now in a U.S.-made magnet. That’s what investors should watch for — we’d be one of the first to do it, and only one or two other companies are doing it in the U.S. at all.” [70]
Any one of those is the kind of headline that gets a small-cap rare earth story noticed.
Of course, nothing in the markets is guaranteed. While Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) is gaining momentum, it’s still early in its development curve.
Which is why, as with all high-upside investments, I encourage you to move smartly.
Only risk capital you can afford to lose and always do your due diligence.
Get Tactical Resources’ Investor Presentation Before the Headlines Catch Up
To help you take the first step, we’ll send you Tactical Resources’ latest corporate presentation when you sign up below today.
It’s the same deck the company uses to walk investors through its story, so you can study the opportunity yourself alongside everything you’ve read here.
Inside, you’ll find:
- The Peak Project up close: maps, site photos, and how the Sierra Blanca Quarry’s existing operation could feed Tactical’s planned processing plant
- The processing comparison: a side-by-side look at the traditional rare earth flow sheet versus Peak’s simpler direct-leach route
- The initial extraction results: what the Qualified Person–verified test work found, and what it was designed to measure
- The project timeline: what’s complete, what’s in progress, and the milestones still ahead
- The market backdrop: demand forecasts, China’s share of supply, and the federal support behind U.S. rare earth production
- The leadership team: the executives, directors, and advisors behind the company
So What Are You Waiting For?
The biggest opportunities in small-cap investing rarely show up after Wall Street spots them.
They show up before.
China’s tightening grip on rare earth exports is already colliding with rising geopolitical instability… Washington keeps writing checks to secure domestic supply… and every month that passes brings Tactical Resources closer to reaching a new set of milestones.
Recent events alone are proof of how fast this sector moves.
In September 2026, President Trump signed a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland — officially framed as a military and Arctic-basing arrangement.[60]
But lawmakers weren’t shy about what’s really at stake.
Rep. John Moolenaar called Greenland “home to critical minerals that will power the future.”[61]
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis pointed to the island’s “strategic location and rare-earth resources.”[62]
The market seemed to agree, as companies with Greenland rare earth exposure rallied within days — reaching developers of every size, from a $1.2 billion, pilot-plant-stage company all the way down to a $70 million junior that had barely closed on its Greenland project.
Critical Metals Corp, developer of the Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland, climbed roughly 47% in only three days.
“Shares of Critical Metals Corp. reacted sharply as the September 2026 security pact put the company’s Tanbreez rare earth project in Greenland into sharper focus.”
And Greenland Mines, developer of the Sarfartoq rare earth project in southwest Greenland, surged 545% in only four days…
Shares of Greenland Mines surged on the security pact, as investors zeroed in on the company’s recently acquired Sarfartoq rare earth project in southwest Greenland.”
The important lesson here is a security deal signed on the other side of the world can reshuffle rare earth stock valuations within a week.
That’s the pace this sector moves at now.
We believe Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) could be the kind of setup that comes along rarely — a real asset… a strong policy tailwind… and a very small starting valuation.
Nobody knows how it will turn out, but it’s definetly worth looking at closely.
And today is the best time to do that, before Wall Street discovers it and the crowd arrives.
Sign up for The Investment Journal now to get Tactical Resources’ investor presentation and see the full story for yourself.
See References Below
[2] https://www.northernminer.com/subscribe-login/?id=1003894826
[8] https://www.northernminer.com/subscribe-login/?id=1003894826
[13] https://vulcanelements.com/vulcan-elements-forges-1-4-billion/
[14] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1970622/000121390026007457/ea027403101ex99-1_usarare.htm
[20] https://www.exim.gov/news/brett-lambert-announced-executive-chairman-vault
[21] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-rare-earths.pdf
[23] https://www.acquisition.gov/dfars/225.7018-2-restriction.
[24] https://www.vaneck.com.au/blog/etfs/introducing-resm
[25] https://phys.org/news/2025-03-powering-future-america-perceptions-critical.pdf
[27] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9242635/
[28] https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/doe-critical-material-assessment_07312023.pdf
[30] https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R41744.html
[31] https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R41744.html
[32] https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R41744.html
[34] https://www.iea.org/reports/rare-earth-elements/executive-summary
[35] https://fortune.com/2025/04/14/china-rare-earth-exports-halt-trump-trade-war-tariff-retaliation
[36] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/29/us-china-rare-earth-minerals-metals-geopolitics-power.html
[39] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-invest-10-billion-us-153214283.html
[41] https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/binghamton/business/2024/12/03/china-bans-exports-to-u-s-
[42] https://www.csis.org/analysis/consequences-chinas-new-rare-earths-export-restrictions
[43] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-tightens-rare-earth-export-controls-2025-10-09/
[47] https://www.csis.org/analysis/rare-earth-export-restrictions-one-year-later
[49] https://www.cnbc.com/2010/09/23/china-bans-rare-earth-exports-to-japan-amid-tension.html
[50] https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1042/
[53] https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-07/doe-critical-material-assessment_07312023.pdf
[54] Tactical Resources Corporate Presentation Q3 2026, page 7
[55] Tactical Resources Corporate Presentation Q3 2026, page 7
[56] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2026/mcs2026-rare-earths.pdf
[57] https://mineralsmakelife.org/blog/2026-poll-signals-strong-domestic-mining-support/
[59] Railway Commission of Texas Data 2018-2024
[60] https://www.iea.org/reports/rare-earth-elements/executive-summary
[61] https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1798663
[62] https://tacticalresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Technical-Report-NI-43-101-Peak-Project.pdf
[63] https://tacticalresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Technical-Report-NI-43-101-Peak-Project.pdf
[65] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1970622/000121390026007457/ea027403101ex99-1_usarare.htm
[67] Market data as of late September 2026; stockanalysis.com
[68] Companies selected are publicly traded and accessible to U.S. investors, each with a documented rare earth element business as of September 2026.
[70] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pv_VMEKwCk
[71] https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/09/president-trump-inks-historic-arctic-security-agreement/
[72] https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/09/president-trump-inks-historic-arctic-security-agreement/
[73] https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/09/president-trump-inks-historic-arctic-security-agreement/
IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: This paid advertisement includes a stock profile of Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO). In an effort to enhance public awareness, Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) funded a budget of approximately $658,700 for the advertising agency to cover the costs associated with creating, printing and distribution of this advertisement. In addition, Investment Journal may receive subscription revenue in the future from new subscribers as a result of this advertisement for its newsletter. The advertising agencies will retain any excess sums after all expenses are paid. All investments are subject to risk, which must be considered on an individual basis before making any investment decision. Investment Journal is an investment newsletter being advertised herein. This paid advertisement is intended solely for information and educational purposes and is not to be construed under any circumstances as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any securities. While this advertisement is being disseminated and for a period of not less than 90 days thereafter, Investment Journal, the advertising agencies, and their respective officers, principals, or affiliates will not sell securities of Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO). If successful, this advertisement will increase investor and market awareness Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) and its securities, which may result in an increased number of shareholders owning and trading the securities, increased trading volume, and possibly an increase in share price, which may be temporary. This advertisement, the advertising agencies and Investment Journal do not purport to provide a complete analysis of Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO)) or its financial position. They are not, and do not purport to be, broker-dealers or registered investment advisors. This advertisement is not, and should not be construed to be, personalized investment advice directed to or appropriate for any particular investor. Any investment should be made only after consulting a registered broker-dealer or registered investment advisor or, at a minimum, doing your own research if you do not utilize an investment professional to make decisions on what securities to buy and sell, and only after reviewing the financial statements and other pertinent publicly-available information about Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO). Further, readers are specifically urged to read and carefully consider the Risk Factors identified and discussed in Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) SEC filings. Investing in microcap securities such as Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This advertisement is based exclusively on information generally available to the public and does not contain any material, non-public information. The information on which it is based is believed to be reliable. Nevertheless, the advertising agencies and Investment Journal cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information and are not responsible for any errors or omissions. This advertisement contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding expected continual growth of Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) and/or its industry. The advertising agencies and Investment Journal note that statements contained herein that look forward in time, which include everything other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may affect Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) actual results of operations. Factors that could cause actual results to vary include the size and growth of the market for Tactical Resources (NASDAQ: TREO) products and/or services, the company’s ability to fund its capital requirements in the near term and long term, federal and state regulatory issues, pricing pressures, etc. Investment Journal is the newsletter writer’s trademark. All trademarks used in this advertisement other than Investment Journal are the property of their respective trademark holders and no endorsement by such owners of the contents of this advertisement is made or implied. The advertising agencies and Investment Journal are not affiliated, connected, or associated with, and are not sponsored, approved, or originated by, the trademark holders unless otherwise stated. No claim is made to any rights in any third-party trademarks.
FROM THE COMPANY TO YOU
Corporate Presentation
Free Corporate Presentation · Nasdaq: TREO
1.5 Million Tonnes Already Mined: Inside the Texas Quarry Built for America’s Rare Earth Push