Hertha Metals breaks ground on $100M iron plant in Conroe

Hertha Metals broke ground Oct. 8, 2026, on Chalyx, its first commercial plant, in Conroe, Montgomery County. SteelOrbis put the investment at roughly $100M, and the company put capacity at about 10,000 metric tons a year of 99.95 percent high-purity iron, the input material for rare earth permanent magnets.

Why it matters

The plant lands in Montgomery County rather than Harris, adding a new industrial user to the I-45 north corridor outside Houston’s core. Chalyx sits next to Hertha’s existing Pi100 pilot plant, which the company calls the first modern iron and steel innovation complex built in the United States. For industrial brokers, contractors and land sellers north of Houston, it is a new heavy-industry user with a construction schedule through 2027.

Hertha CEO Laureen Meroueh called the company “the last missing piece” in the U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain, which China currently dominates.

The numbers

Chalyx is designed for 10,000 metric tons a year of magnet-grade high-purity iron, sourced mainly from Minnesota iron ore and Texas natural gas. SteelOrbis reported the cost at roughly $100M. CV Engineering is the named engineering, procurement and construction partner. The groundbreaking followed a Series A round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Doerr Capital that included a U.S. government equity investment, according to trade press coverage of the raise.

What’s next

Hertha expects Chalyx to come online in late 2027, with magnet-grade iron production starting in early 2028. The company has also outlined a planned 500,000-ton-per-year steel mill, but says construction on that mill will not begin until Chalyx proves itself commercially, so there is no site or timeline yet for the larger facility. A TDLR accessibility registration would be the first state record of the plant’s registered cost and owner.

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