Cyclic Materials’ Mesa rare earth recycling plant: process and scale notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Cyclic Materials has opened a 144,000-square-foot rare earth magnet recycling plant in Mesa, Arizona, designed to process up to 25,000 tonnes per year of magnet-bearing end-of-life products using its proprietary MagCycle mechanical separation technology. The feedstock-agnostic facility is already running at 8 tonnes per hour, producing Mag-Xtract rare earth magnet material and recovering copper, aluminium and steel for sale to US smelters, with over 7,000 tonnes of material already delivered. Backed by more than US$20 million in investment, the plant is intended as a replicable model ahead of a planned South Carolina rare earth recycling campus.
Technical Brief
- MagCycle is deployed as a mechanical front-end, physically separating permanent magnets from complex end-of-life assemblies.
- Commissioning to commercial operation in Mesa was completed in 17 months from investment announcement.
- More than US$20 million has been invested in the Mesa facility, according to the US Under Secretary.
- Recovered copper, aluminium and steel are sold into existing US smelter networks, avoiding export of magnet-bearing scrap.
- The operation has already received over 7,000 tonnes of magnet-bearing feedstock, with larger volumes contractually secured.
- Dozens of skilled roles have been created on-site, supporting continuous mechanical processing and materials handling operations.
- Mesa is intended as the first “spoke” ahead of a South Carolina rare earth recycling “campus” scheduled to break ground Q4 2026.
Our Take
The Mesa, Arizona plant sits alongside Cyclic Materials’ planned US$82 million rare earth recycling campus at McBee, South Carolina, signalling a deliberate US regional hub-and-spoke footprint for magnet recycling rather than a single flagship facility.
Cyclic Materials’ later US$75 million strategic financing round backed by Microsoft, Amazon and BMW i Ventures in our coverage suggests downstream OEMs see this rare earth and critical minerals recycling platform as a way to de-risk supply chains without waiting for new primary mines to be permitted.
With global rare earth demand projected to triple by 2035 and USA Rare Earth also appearing in recent Brazil-focused critical mineral policy coverage, the Mesa operation strengthens US-based processing options at a time when both North and South American jurisdictions are tightening strategic oversight of rare earth assets.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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