Cyclic Materials opens Arizona rare earth recycling plant — SkimNews
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- Cyclic Materials opened its first commercial-scale rare earth magnet recycling facility in Mesa, Arizona, capable of processing up to 25,000 metric tons of magnet-bearing end-of-life products annually.
- The Mesa plant deploys Cyclic's proprietary MagCycle technology, which mechanically separates magnets and produces a rare earth magnet concentrate called Mag-Xtract alongside copper, aluminum, and steel.
- More than 7,000 metric tons of magnet-bearing material have already been delivered to the facility, and Cyclic expects to make its first commercial shipments to US customers later this month.
- Cyclic Materials signed a deal with electronics recycler ERI in July to supply feedstock, though the company has not specified which end-of-life products the Mesa plant is processing.
- The global rare earth supply chain remains heavily concentrated in China, leaving manufacturers exposed to trade restrictions and geopolitical disruptions, while Cyclic projects global demand will triple by 2035.
- Cyclic Materials completed the Mesa plant 17 months after announcing it and is now developing a combined magnet-recovery and rare-earth-refining campus in South Carolina scheduled to open in 2028.
Why it matters: With China's near-monopoly on rare earth supply and demand projected to triple by 2035, US EV, wind turbine, and defense manufacturers face a structural input vulnerability that Cyclic's 25,000-metric-ton Mesa plant — followed by a 2028 South Carolina refining campus — is positioned to partially offset through domestic recycling.
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