Former JL MAG Rare Earth CTO and Vice President Kenji Konishi joins EM&T with a team of senior engineers to support expansion toward 10,000 metric tons of annual rare earth magnet capacity ahead of the January 1, 2027 DFARS deadline
Republished by AIC Engineering. All rights belong to the original publisher; see Source below.
Former JL MAG Rare Earth CTO and Vice President Kenji Konishi joins EM&T with a team of senior engineers to support expansion toward 10,000 metric tons of annual rare earth magnet capacity ahead of the January 1, 2027 DFARS deadline
MIAMI, FL, Aug. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evolution Metals & Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: EMAT) ("EM&T” or the "Company”), a U.S.-based critical materials and advanced manufacturing company specializing in rare earth permanent magnets, battery materials, and related critical technologies, has appointed industry expert Kenji Konishi as Head of Magnet Engineering Production, alongside a core team of senior Japanese magnet-manufacturing veterans recruited from leading global producers. Mr. Konishi joins EM&T from JL MAG Rare Earth Co., Ltd., where he served as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.
Mr. Konishi brings to EM&T an elite, decades-long global track record of scaling high-performance sintered NdFeB magnet production to commercial volumes for Tier-1 automotive, industrial, and defense-adjacent OEMs. Joined by a team of senior operating professionals, his appointment directly reinforces EM&T’s manufacturing execution behind its expansion toward approximately 10,000 metric tons of annual rare earth magnet capacity by November 2026.
This operational expansion accelerates EM&T’s positioning as the only known company outside China capable of supplying rare earth permanent magnets compliant with DFARS 252.225-7052, which mandates strict material origin and sourcing standards for qualifying U.S. defense systems effective January 1, 2027. The move also follows the July 20, 2026 Executive Order, Securing America’s Defense Supply Chains and Ensuring Domestic Acquisition of Critical Materials, which strengthened enforcement of domestic sourcing standards and critical material origin requirements across U.S. defense procurement.
Mr. Konishi began his career in 1994 at Santoku Corporation, holding technical and business leadership positions in permanent magnet materials for nearly two decades before serving as Chief Executive Officer of Minmetals Santoku in Ganzhou, China. As Vice President and CTO of JL MAG Rare Earths, he oversaw a period in which annual revenue grew approximately 2.76 times, from roughly USUSD 115 million in 2015 to approximately USUSD 318 million in 2020. He then founded JL MAG Japan, serving as its inaugural President.
Mr. Konishi’s expertise spans sintered NdFeB, bonded, and SmCo magnet systems, covering the full magnet manufacturing process from alloy design through mass production. He is particularly proficient in advanced surface treatment and grain boundary diffusion, the process step that enables heavy-rare-earth-efficient magnets required by defense, automotive, and industrial applications. Joining Mr. Konishi at EM&T are senior engineering professionals with prior tenure at TDK Corporation, SAE Magnetics, Daido Steel, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Napac, assembling one of the deepest concentrations of rare earth permanent magnet expertise outside China.
"Recruiting Kenji, and the senior operators who have chosen to join him at EM&T, is one of the strongest possible indications of what we continue to build,” said David Wilcox, Executive Chairman of EM&T. "Very few individuals in the world combine his depth of knowledge and experience in sintered NdFeB mass production, grain boundary diffusion, and full-process engineering with a proven track record of scaling a magnet business commercially in a secure, compliant, and resilient supply chain. The US Government’s seemingly lack of engagement with EM&T reminds us of when Tesla didn’t get invited to the Biden Administration’s Electric Vehicle roundtable in 2021. EM&T is the only US magnet producer that is compliant with the critical DFARS 252.225-7052 mandate, according to publicly available representations.”
"Equipment and financing get you a factory; operators get you a magnet business,” said Frank Moon, Chief Executive Officer of EM&T. "Kenji has spent his career at the center of the global rare earth magnet industry - at Santoku, at Minmetals Santoku, and as CTO of JL MAG - and he arrives with a team of senior engineers who share that record. That combination is exactly what our next phase of production growth, and our ability to serve U.S. defense prime contractors under DFARS, requires.”
"Evolution Metals is the only known company to be compliant with DFARS 252.225-7052 that has already built commercial-scale rare earth magnet production to address supply chain dependency, and it is positioned to replicate that capability in the United States at a moment when the market urgently needs it,” said Kenji Konishi. "I look forward to helping the Company meet the growing global demand for reliable, non-China rare earth magnet supply.”
Source
- manilatimes.net (2026-08-10)
- Original article: Evolution Metals & Technologies Appoints Industry Veteran Kenji Konishi to Lead Rare Earth Magnet Engineering Production | The Manila Times