USAR's Margins Hurt by High Project Development Costs: What's Ahead?

USA Rare Earth, Inc. USAR has a strong pipeline of development projects, which includes a Round Top mining facility in Texas and a magnet manufacturing facility in Oklahoma. However, the company has been incurring losses without generating any revenues since its formation, as it has not yet reached the commercial-scale production stage at its mining projects.

As USAR has been in the development stage for its upcoming projects, it has been grappling with rising operational expenses, thereby adversely impacting its margins and profitability. For instance, in the third quarter of 2025, USA Rare Earth’s selling, general and administrative expenses surged to $11.4 million from $0.8 million in the year-ago quarter. 

The increase in costs was driven by higher legal and consulting costs, as well as headcount and recruiting fees and other costs. Also, research and development expenses increased to $4.45 million from $1.16 million due to an increase in employee-related expenses related to a rise in headcount and other costs. Amid this, the company posted a loss of 25 cents per share  in third-quarter 2025.

It’s worth noting that USA Rare Earth is actively progressing with its planned commercialization timeline for several of its rare earth projects. Nevertheless, these sites are expected to take at least a few quarters to reach the commercial production stage.

For instance, recently USAR announced that it expects its Round Top rare earth and critical minerals project to commence commercial production in late 2028, two years before previously projected. The absence of revenue and increase in project development costs are likely to continue hurting the company’s margins in the near term.

USAR’s Peers’ Performance

Among its major peers, NioCorp Developments Ltd. NB is facing cost pressure. In the third quarter of 2025, its total operating expenses increased significantly on a year-over-year basis, due to expenses incurred for the advancement of the Elk Creek Project. Rising costs and expenses, if not controlled, might affect NioCorp Developments’ margin performance moving ahead.

Trilogy Metals Inc. TMQ continues to maintain financial discipline as it advances work at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects through its joint venture, Ambler Metals LLC. For the first nine months of fiscal 2025 (ended Aug. 31, 2025), Ambler Metals recorded $3.8 million in expenditures tied to the ongoing programs, including salaries, engineering works professional fees and project support activities. Trilogy Metals’ disciplined capital approach is allowing it to manage the expenditures at a time when development projects often require significant investment.

USAR’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of USAR have gained 16.2% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 25.4%.

From a valuation standpoint, USAR is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of negative 35.42X against the industry’s average of 15.57X. USA Rare Earth carries a Value Score of D.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for USAR’s 2025 bottom-line has declined over the past 60 days.

The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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