The son of an Australian mining entrepreneur sanctioned by the country’s securities regulator has left the board of USA Rare Earth Inc. with a stake worth more than $350 million.
Mordechai Gutnick, 48, stepped down last week after previously announcing he wouldn’t run for reelection. USA Rare Earth said the decision was related to its acquisition of a Brazilian mining firm that will add two new directors to the board.
“USA Rare Earth’s board is focused on one mission: Building a fully integrated rare earth and permanent magnet value chain outside of China,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The board is extraordinarily well positioned to oversee the company’s execution and generate industry-leading returns.”
The Stillwater, Oklahoma-based company announced in January a deal for federal government funding worth as much as $1.6 billion to help develop a minerals deposit in Texas and rare earth-related processing and manufacturing projects. In April, it agreed to acquire Brazil’s Serra Verde Group, owner of a rare earth mine and processing plant, in a $2.8 billion deal. Its shares have gained 90% this year.
Gutnick owns about 7% of USA Rare Earth through a trust, a stake worth about $351 million. Earlier this month he entered into a variable prepaid forward contract with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on roughly a quarter of his shares, which would allow him to raise cash upfront while delaying a formal sale.
He is the son of Australian mining entrepreneur Joseph “Diamond Joe” Gutnick, 74, a rabbi who took another rabbi’s advice to search for gold and diamonds in the Australian outback.
That led Gutnick to find “some of the great gold discoveries in Australia,” he wrote in a recent email to Bloomberg News. “Jundee, Bronzewing, Plutonic and Duketon Belt.”
He built a mining fortune that for decades made him one of the country’s wealthiest and highest-profile individuals. He was a director of the World Gold Council, president of an Australian football club and helped bankroll Benjamin Netanyahu’s electoral victory in Israel in 1996.
But Gutnick was also frequently involved in bruising legal and boardroom battles. In 2016 he declared bankruptcy with debts of A$275 million ($194 million), brought on by a failed fertilizer supply deal.
Texas deposit
Mordechai, one of Joseph’s 11 children, founded an investment vehicle in 2015 whose key asset became an option to acquire 80% of Round Top, a Texas minerals deposit. The stake was contingent on spending $10 million developing the project and a $3 million cash payment.
That holding was the main asset of USA Rare Earth when it went public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company in March last year. Gutnick is described as the founding investor of USA Rare Earth’s operating company in its filings.
The younger Gutnick has had roles at several businesses associated with his father, including Merlin Diamonds. Mordechai took over as managing director in 2016 when Joseph resigned after his bankruptcy. The company was later forced into liquidation by Australian securities regulator ASIC and was found to have loaned A$13.7 million in investor money to a private company associated with Joseph.
In 2024 ASIC determined that the elder Gutnick acted improperly and had not met his obligations as director at several companies, including Merlin. He was banned from managing corporations for four years.
“There are two sides to the story and it’s behind us now,” he said in the email. “Mordi has done an unbelievable job in creating a powerhouse rare earth company of international importance.”
(By Tom Maloney)
