Like Dunmead and Hoyer, MCM Board Member Tom Heywood has seen plenty of startups come and go.
The chief of staff to former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton, Heywood has watched, and sometimes helped shape, the development of the state’ s economy and energy industry over his decades-long career as an attorney and lobbyist.
earths, from extraction and processing to applications like defense,” Heywood says.“ It’ s an opportunity to become part of a critically important future industry for our country and to have a large focus of that activity here in West Virginia, where a lot of the groundbreaking research occurred.”
A transaction and economic development lawyer for over 40 years, he calls the opportunities he’ s seeing on his desk
“ Think of a business model where West Virginia becomes an important part of a larger domestic supply chain of rare earths, from extraction and processing to applications like defense.”
- Tom Heywood, Board Member, MCM; Partner, Bowles Rice LLP
In his experience, the perfect confluence of right place, right time is rare indeed. Heywood believes MCM found that sweet spot by launching after state legislation was enacted that created tax incentives for rare earth recovery and clarified ownership of the recovered elements.
That bill, passed in 2022, stated whoever recovers the rare earth elements from an acid mine drainage site owns those elements. It offers companies like MCM assurance that if they recover these rare earths, they own those elements and can seek to commercialize them.
“ Think of a business model where West Virginia becomes an important part of a larger domestic supply chain of rare these days staggering in terms of the size and quality of investments coming into the state. The momentum that’ s building reminds him of decades like the’ 50s and’ 60s.
“ It’ s been a long time coming, but this is the moment,” he says.“ Think about the value being created by MCM through the lens of our state’ s industrial tradition, craft tradition, energy excellence and excellence in chemistry. All those long-standing assets are coming to bear at this point in time. This is how West Virginia was built. We’ re potentially heading into a real golden age for West Virginia, and we’ re seeing the early stages of that with investments like MCM.” •
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