Mkango Magnetic Materials (AIM:MKA) said its German subsidiary HyProMag has been designated a Strategic Project under the European Union's Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), a status the bloc reserves for projects it deems essential to securing reliable supplies of critical raw materials for European industry.
The company now has three assets carrying the designation: HyProMag Germany this month, the Songwe Hill mine development in June 2025, and the Pulawy rare earths separation project in Poland in March 2025.
HyProMag's Pforzheim plant is being commissioned with a minimum initial capacity of approximately 100 tonnes a year of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets and alloys, rising to around 350 tonnes a year across multiple shifts, with a further expansion to a targeted 750 tonnes a year still under evaluation.
The plant was officially opened earlier this year in a ceremony presided over by Stefan Rouenhoff, Germany's Parliamentary State Secretary, and has since completed initial commissioning runs on its HPMS reactor, with sequential commissioning of other major equipment continuing.
Mkango said HyProMag is engaging with multiple customers for NdFeB alloy powder and magnets on an ongoing basis to support the scale-up of operations, citing strong interest in its product range.
The CRMA designation follows a UK-Germany joint government statement earlier this year that referenced HyProMag's expansion, and comes as the company pursues a broader restructuring of its asset base: a proposed business combination would spin Songwe Hill and Pulawy into a separately listed vehicle, MKAR, targeting a Nasdaq listing, while HyProMag's magnet-recycling operations remain with Mkango.
Strategic Project status under the CRMA does not itself guarantee funding, but is intended to speed permitting and improve access to EU financing mechanisms for the projects that hold it.
Mkango's recycling arm has been expanding on multiple fronts this year, including the acquisition of Germany's Remloy business from Heraeus Amloy Technologies and the leasing of a Denton County hub in Texas for its HyProMag USA joint venture with CoTec.