Rare earth mining company MP Materials Corp came public on the NYSE in November 2020 through a SPAC reverse merger backed by “SPAC King” Chamath Palihapitiya. The company was able to sell itself to investors touting the fact that MP is the biggest rare earth producer in the western world and the only feasible competitor to Chinese producers. In reality, we believe that this is nothing more than a smoke and mirrors show. We found that Shenghe, a related party that accounts for 99% of MP’s revenue, and a significant shareholder, can be traced back to the Chinese central government. The projections that MP puts forth seem completely unattainable, and the company needs to incur capital expenditures that might lead it back into bankruptcy.