---
type: source
title: "Niron Magnetics Breaks Ground on World's First Commercial Iron Nitride Magnet Plant — 1,500 Tons/Year by 2027"
author: "BusinessWire, Rare Earth Exchanges, Interesting Engineering"
url: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250929097968/en/Niron-Magnetics-Changes-Game-by-Breaking-Ground-on-Rare-Earth-Free-Magnet-Facility
date: 2025-09-29
domain: manufacturing
secondary_domains: [robotics, energy]
format: article
status: unprocessed
priority: high
tags: [iron-nitride, rare-earth-free, magnets, Niron-Magnetics, manufacturing, actuators, NdFeB-alternative, 2027-timeline]
intake_tier: research-task
---

## Content

**From BusinessWire (September 29, 2025) and Interesting Engineering:**

Niron Magnetics broke ground on the world's first commercial iron nitride (Fe16N2) permanent magnet manufacturing facility in Sartell, Minnesota on September 29, 2025. Key details:

**Plant specifications:**
- Location: Sartell, Minnesota (Plant 1)
- Annual production capacity: 1,500 metric tons of iron nitride permanent magnets
- Expected operational date: 2027
- Technology: Based on research by Professor Jian-Ping Wang at the University of Minnesota

**Pilot facility:**
- Niron Magnetics opened a commercial pilot plant in Minneapolis in October 2024, enabling commercial sampling
- ARPA-E funded early pilot production work

**Material advantages:**
- Iron nitride (Fe16N2) is made from iron and nitrogen — two of Earth's most abundant elements
- No rare earth elements required — not subject to China supply constraints or export control leverage
- Performance claims: approaches NdFeB energy product; allows higher temperature operation than ferrite
- Key differentiation from ferrite alternatives: iron nitride closes more of the performance gap to NdFeB than ferrite does

**Prototype validation:**
- At CES 2025 (January 2025), Niron Magnetics and MATTER Motor Works unveiled a rare-earth-free variable flux motor prototype combining iron nitride magnets with advanced motor architecture
- First demonstration of iron nitride magnets in a working motor for industrial applications

**Context:**
- Global NdFeB production: ~200,000 metric tons/year (predominantly China)
- 1,500 tons/year = enough for approximately 430,000 humanoid robots (at 3.5 kg NdFeB equivalent per robot)
- At Tesla's 2026 target of 100,000 Optimus units: 1,500 tons would cover 430,000 robots annually, but only if iron nitride achieves equivalent actuator performance — which is undemonstrated at production scale

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** Niron Magnetics represents the only credible near-term path to rare-earth-free permanent magnets for humanoid robot actuators. The 2027 operational date means this is NOT a 2026 solution for Optimus (which needs production now), but it represents the first concrete timeline for when the China NdFeB dependency could begin to be addressed at production scale. This is the specific technology that the May 5 branching point asked about — and the timeline answer is: 2027 at 1,500 tons, not 2-3 years as hoped.

**What surprised me:** The iron nitride technology is more advanced than I expected — a working motor prototype at CES 2025 is meaningfully beyond lab demonstration. The Sartell plant being operational in 2027 (not 2030+) is a faster timeline than ferrite-based alternatives suggested. The key remaining uncertainty: does iron nitride achieve NdFeB-equivalent torque density in production actuators, or is it still 80-90% of NdFeB (which would require 15-25% larger actuators)?

**What I expected but didn't find:** Expected iron nitride to be purely laboratory-stage. Found instead a production timeline and working prototype. The performance gap to NdFeB at production scale remains uncharacterized — this is the key remaining evidence gap.

**KB connections:**
- [[three conditions gate AI takeover risk autonomy robotics and production chain control]] — iron nitride could remove China's production chain control from the robotics bottleneck on a 2027+ timeline
- [[value in industry transitions accrues to bottleneck positions in the emerging architecture]] — Niron Magnetics would hold the bottleneck position in the rare-earth-free magnet supply chain

**Extraction hints:**
- CLAIM: "Iron nitride permanent magnets (Fe16N2) represent the first plausible rare-earth-free alternative to NdFeB for high-performance applications, with Niron Magnetics targeting 1,500 tons/year production from a Sartell, MN plant operational in 2027 — sufficient for ~430,000 humanoid robots annually at equivalent performance"
- CLAIM: "The humanoid robot industry's NdFeB rare-earth dependency cannot be resolved before 2027 at the earliest via iron nitride alternatives, and not before 2029-2030 via non-China NdFeB supply chain diversification, making the China geopolitical constraint structural for 3-5 years"
- FLAG: Performance at production scale vs. prototype remains undemonstrated — claim should be marked experimental until Sartell plant produces qualified magnets for actuator testing

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: Extends the existing claim "China's rare-earth export controls create a geopolitical supply chain constraint on humanoid robot scaling" — this source establishes the timeline for when and how that constraint could be resolved
WHY ARCHIVED: First concrete production timeline for a rare-earth-free NdFeB alternative capable of serving humanoid robot actuators — changes the constraint horizon from "indefinite" to "2027-2031"
EXTRACTION HINT: The key claim is the timeline and production scale, not just the existence of the technology. Pair with the Tesla RE-free motor archive (2026-05-06) to establish: constraint exists (May 5 archive) → near-term RE-free alternative for Optimus infeasible (May 6 archive) → 2027 solution timeline exists (this archive)
