US’ first commercial rare earth recycling plant opens with 27,500-ton capacity

A new facility in Arizona is turning discarded products into a domestic source of rare earth materials at a commercial scale. Cyclic Materials, a company that recycles rare earth magnets from end-of-life products, has opened the plant in Mesa. It can process up to 25,000 metric tons (27,500 U.S. tons) of magnet-bearing material every year using automated mechanical separation technology. Commercial operations are already underway. The facility will supply recovered rare earth magnet material and other critical metals to U.S. customers, with its first commercial shipments expected later this month. Automated magnet separation at commercial scale The Mesa plant represents the first commercial-scale deployment of Cyclic Materials’ proprietary MagCycle technology. The system automatically separates magnets from discarded products before the recovered materials move through the company’s wider rare earth processing platform. This recovered material includes Mag-Xtract, Cyclic Materials’ rare earth magnet product. The plant can also reclaim copper, aluminum and steel, allowing several valuable materials inside old equipment to return to manufacturing supply chains. Automating this initial separation stage could help process large and varied streams of magnet-bearing waste. Such magnets are found across products used in the automotive, robotics, electronics, energy, defense and artificial intelligence industries. Cyclic Materials has already received more than 7,000 metric tons (7,700 U.S. tons) of feedstock at the Mesa site. It has also secured further volumes through long-term commercial partnerships established across the United States. Turning old products into domestic resources Rare earth elements are essential to many modern technologies, including electric motors, electronics, and advanced defense systems. However, their global supply chain remains concentrated in a few regions, making manufacturers vulnerable to trade disruptions and geopolitical tensions. Recovering the materials from end-of-life products offers another route to supply. Instead of allowing magnet-bearing devices to enter conventional waste streams, recycling facilities can extract their valuable components and feed them back into domestic production. The approach does not eliminate the need for newly mined materials. However, it can help the United States recover resources already extracted, processed, and incorporated into manufactured products. The timing is also significant. Global demand for rare earth elements is projected to triple by 2035 as industries expand their use of electric vehicles, robotics, AI infrastructure, electronics, and clean-energy systems. Facility completed in 17 months Cyclic Materials completed the Mesa facility 17 months after first announcing the project. According to the company, the relatively short construction period demonstrates a model that could be repeated to establish additional domestic processing capacity. The site acts as the front end of the company’s integrated rare earth recovery platform. Magnets removed through the MagCycle process can be directed toward further processing, while recovered copper, aluminum and steel can also re-enter manufacturing streams. Its opening gives Cyclic Materials its first commercial-scale operating base for automated magnet recovery in the United States. With thousands of tons of feedstock already delivered and customer shipments approaching, the plant is moving beyond a pilot operation into commercial production. The company says the facility is the first commercial-scale automated rare earth magnet recovery plant of its kind in the country.Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Atharva is a full-time content writer with a post-graduate degree in media & amp; entertainment and a graduate degree in electronics & telecommunications. He has written in the sports and technology domains respectively. In his leisure time, Atharva loves learning about digital marketing and watching soccer matches. His main goal behind joining Interesting Engineering is to learn more about how the recent technological advancements are helping human beings on both societal and individual levels in their daily lives.