Highlights

• Metal Events hosts the 1st North American Rare Earths Conference in Vancouver, April 15–17, 2026, bringing together miners, processors, magnet manufacturers, and investors to rebuild strategic rare-earth supply chains across North America and allied markets.
• The conference addresses critical industry challenges including reducing reliance on Chinese supply chains, navigating price volatility driven by EV and renewable energy demand, and establishing integrated mine-to-magnet production capabilities in Western economies.
• Despite diversification efforts, the continued participation of Chinese-linked firms alongside Western companies signals that complete decoupling remains unlikely, with the industry moving toward a more geographically diversified yet still globally interconnected rare-earth ecosystem.

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Metal Events will convene the 1st North American Rare Earths Conference in Vancouver, April 15–17, 2026, assembling miners, processors, magnet manufacturers, market analysts, traders, and institutional investors to examine how North America can rebuild strategic rare-earth supply chains. While framed as a regional meeting, the attendee roster reveals a globally integrated industry network, with participants from Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, and China-linked firms. The agenda underscores a central question shaping the sector: how Western economies can diversify supply chains for magnet metals while still operating within a globally interconnected rare-earth market.

Vancouver, British Columbia

Conference Focus: Security, Market Signals, and Industrial Policy

Several themes dominate the program.

Strategic Realignment Away from China

The opening session addresses the geopolitical dimension of rare earths. Analysts from Project Blue (opens in a new tab) and Greyfriars LLC (opens in a new tab) will discuss Western efforts to reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains. Their presentations focus on national security investment, industrial policy, and the structural challenges facing attempts to rebuild Western rare-earth capacity.

The topic reflects growing policy momentum in the United States and allied countries toestablish domestic and allied rare-earth supply chains, particularly fordefense systems, electric vehicles, and renewable energy technologies.

Price Volatility and Demand Signals

Market intelligence firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (opens in a new tab) will examine the relationship between downstream demand—especially from EV motors and wind turbines—and rare-earth price volatility. Understanding these demand signals remains critical for investors evaluating new mining and processing projects, many of which face long development timelines and uncertain pricing cycles.

Rebuilding the Magnet Supply Chain

Speakers from Arnold Magnetic Technologies (opens in a new tab) and Applied Materials (opens in a new tab) will address the downstream segment of the rare-earth industry: magnet manufacturing. Historically concentrated in Asia, particularly China, this sector is increasingly viewed by Western governments as a strategic industrial capability.

Discussion is expected to center on emerging “mine-to-magnet” supply chain strategies within North America and allied markets.

Scandium Gains Strategic Attention

The conference also dedicates a specialized session to the scandium market, including a presentation on potential production from Doubleview Gold’s Hat Project in British Columbia (opens in a new tab). The event will host the inaugural Annual General Meeting of the International Scandium Association, highlighting growing interest in scandium for aerospace alloys, solid oxide fuel cells, and advanced materials.

Participants: A Cross-Section of the Rare-Earth Ecosystem

The attendee list reflects representation across the entire value chain.

• Mining and development: Torngat Metals, Energy Fuels, Doubleview Gold, Sunrise Energy Metals, Ramaco Resources
• Recycling and circular economy: Cyclic Materials
• Processing, metallurgy, and refining: Tenova Goodfellow, SGS Canada, Neo Performance Materials
• Magnet and advanced materials manufacturing: Arnold Magnetic Technologies, Shin-Etsu Magnetics, Applied Materials
• Chinese-linked participants: Shenghe Resources, Fujian Golden Dragon Rare-Earth, Hefa Rare-Earth Canada
• Market intelligence, trading, and finance: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Project Blue, S&P Global Energy, Traxys Europe, Valent Asset Management
• Major industrial end users—including Rolls-Royce—also appear on the attendee list, underscoring the aerospace and defense implications of rare-earth supply chains.

Strategic Takeaways

Three signals emerge from the conference program, according to a Rare Earth Exchanges™ review.

First, North America is actively rebuilding an integrated rare-earth industrial base spanning mining, processing, recycling, and magnet manufacturing. Second, recycling and “above-ground mining”—recovering rare earths from scrap magnets, electronics, and industrial waste—are gaining traction as complementary sources of supply. And finally, third, the continued participation of Chinese-linked firms and globally integrated supply-chain players illustrates that complete decoupling from China remains unlikely in the near term, even as Western governments pursue diversification strategies.

Bottom Line

Although modest in scale, the Vancouver conference reflects a critical transition in the rare-earth industry. Governments, investors, and manufacturers are beginning to move beyond policy discussions toward practical supply-chain rebuilding across North America and allied markets. If these initiatives succeed, the next decade could see the emergence of a more geographically diversified rare-earth ecosystem—though China’s existing industrial dominance will remain a defining feature of the global market.

See registration (opens in a new tab).