A Research Triangle Park-based rare earths magnet company has announced it is building a nearly billion-dollar factory in Johnston County, near the confluence of Interstate 40 and Interstate 95.
Vulcan Elements committed to invest $918.4 million in the Benson factory, creating as many as 1,000 jobs with an average wage of $81,932.
The factory will be the largest magnet manufacturing facility in the world outside of China, state officials and company leaders said Tuesday while announcing the new facility. The rare earth magnets the company manufactures are used in a litany of everyday materials and also play a key role in defense.
“This is important not only for economic development. It's important for national security,” Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said Tuesday.
North Carolina's Economic Investment Committee met Tuesday morning to approve a Job Development Investment Grant incentive for Vulcan's new factory. If the company meets job creation and investment targets, it could receive as much as $17.58 million in grants over a dozen years. Those grants will begin in 2027, which Vulcan requested to protect itself against potential construction delays.
The N.C. Department of Commerce estimates the Vulcan project will have an economic impact to North Carolina of about $2.6 billion over the next 12 years.
John Maslin, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said Vulcan launched in 2023 because rare earth magnets are one of three key parts of the supply chain for almost every key piece of modern life.
Maslin touted the role rare earth magnets play in defense, particularly in missiles, drones and tanks. On the commercial side, he said, they are found in MRI machines, laptops and other everyday materials.
“A semi-conductor is like your brain, a battery is like your heart and a rare earth magnet is like your spine. It literally translates electricity into motion,” Maslin said.
China produces 94-to-98% of the global supply, while the United States only produces about 1%. In his remarks, Maslin noted the new factory’s proximity to Fort Bragg.
“This is a mission to ensure that we’re making sure our warfighters have supply chains … this is about making sure that the United States and the west win the AI race, win the robotics race, win the drone race,” Maslin said.
The raw materials to manufacture new magnets are readily available, Maslin said, including by removing them from recycled electronic devices.
"This is about making sure that we're actually scaling and competing economically with the processing and manufacturing of turning a critical mineral into a useful critical component," Maslin said.
U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican, said Tuesday that he is keenly interested in Vulcan because its supply chain and manufacturing process are “fully decoupled from China.”
“We should have done this decades ago. But now we are and we’re moving the critical supply chain for rare earths and so many other things away from China,” Budd said.
Investment by the federal government
Earlier this month, the company announced that it had reached a $1.4-billion deal with the U.S. Government and ReElement Technologies. Vulcan’s intention was to build a facility capable of producing 10,000 tons of magnets annually.
“This partnership proves that America can manufacture rare earth magnets – entirely on U.S. soil,” the company said in a press release.
The agreement included a $620 million loan from the U.S. Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital, $550 million in private capital and $50 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce funded through the CHIPS and Science Act.
As part of the deal, the U.S. Department of Commerce received $50 million of equity in Vulcan. The U.S. Department of War also has the ability to buy an additional stake in the company.
At the time, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick wrote in a press release, “Our investment in Vulcan Elements will accelerate U.S. production of rare earth magnets for American manufacturers.”
Stein expressed some concerns about the federal government's investments in Vulcan and other companies, but also said he is in "wait and see" mode regarding them.
"I am comforted by the fact it's not voting stock, but I do worry that it might distort government policy going forward, when the government will favor companies in which it holds equity. I think that's not how the government should operate," Stein said.
Vulcan's plans in Johnston County
Vulcan plans to build a one million square-foot factory in Benson.
Right now, the company employs about 20 people at its Research Triangle Park facility. It hopes to reach 1,000 employees.
"With an average wage of over $80,000, almost 90 — unheard of here in Johnston County, these are careers that will impact and strengthen our families, support our communities and build a stronger region for decades to come," Butch Lawter, chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners, said Tuesday.
In addition to the so-called JDIG incentives from state Department of Commerce, it will receive a $3.8 million incentive from the N.C. Community College System Division of Workforce Solutions, $750,000 in infrastructure support from the N.C. Department of Transportation and an anticipated $3 million from the Golden Leaf Foundation.
Max Raynor, Jr., Benson's mayor, noted the town may initially seem like an odd choice for a gigantic magnet manufacturing facility.
"Yes, Benson, North Carolina, a place known for Mule Days, a gospel singing convention and now global magnet supremacy," Raynor said.
Right now, the road into the site passes by an electric substation that serves the site with 30 megawatts of electricity. At the end of the road, there is one large manufacturing building, whose floors are currently empty.
"It's a unicorn site," Maslin said, noting the proximity to Research Triangle Park and the Triangle's universities and military installations like Fort Bragg.
Vulcan also considered sites in Indiana, Ohio and Oklahoma, state commerce officials said during Tuesday's Economic Investment Committee meeting.
Maslin went on to confirm that Vulcan plans to build additional buildings on the site. Much of that, he said, will be under construction within the next year.
