The new recycling facility is expected to produce 600 tonnes per year of recycled Mixed Rare Earth Oxides with planned expansion to triple its capacity, strengthening U.S. production of rare earths, with focus on heavy rare earth elements

Cyclic Materials, the advanced recycling company creating a resilient and secure circular supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials, today announced it is investing more than USD $82M to establish a rare earth recycling campus in McBee, South Carolina. The new site will host Cyclic Materials’ second U.S. Spoke facility, and the company’s largest Hub facility to date, capable of processing 2,000 tonnes of magnet material, with a planned expansion to 6,000 tonnes per year.

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Cyclic Materials' new site in McBee, South Carolina, will host Cyclic Materials’ second U.S. Spoke facility, and the company’s largest Hub facility to date. Photo credit: North Eastern Strategic Alliance

The combined Spoke and Hub facility will utilize Cyclic Materials’ proprietary MagCycle℠ and REEPure℠ processes to separate and recover Mixed Rare Earth Oxides (MREO) from end-of-life products that are typically not recycled today, enabling a resilient, North American anchored source of REEs. These materials are critical to the production of vehicles, advanced electronics, AI infrastructure, and high-performance permanent magnets used in defense, wind turbines, and advanced manufacturing systems.

The site will initially have the capacity to produce 600 tonnes of MREO a year, with a planned expansion to produce 1,800 tonnes to meet growing demand. Deploying such a facility will enable Cyclic Materials to onshore the production of these critical materials in short order, particularly the much-needed heavy rare earths. The expected 1,800 tonnes of MREO produced by this campus annually would supply REEs equivalent to the material needed in producing 6 million hybrid transmissions per year.

The announcement follows Cyclic Materials’ late-2025 agreement with VACUUMSCHMELZE (VAC), a global leader in magnetic materials and solutions. Under a 10-year exclusive agreement, Cyclic Materials will recycle 100 percent of magnet production byproducts (swarf) generated at VAC’s new manufacturing facility in nearby Sumter, South Carolina, which began operations at the end of 2025. Together, the two companies’ facilities position South Carolina as a strategic hub for rare earth magnet recycling and production in the U.S.

“Announcing the opening of our second U.S. recycling site in South Carolina is a major milestone and a clear signal of our long-term commitment to building resilient, domestic critical minerals infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Ahmad Ghahreman, CEO and founder of Cyclic Materials. “This facility will enable Cyclic to reliably serve partners such as VAC, while scaling our advanced recycling technologies that support manufacturing, creates a secure supply chain for the most critical rare earth elements, reduce reliance on overseas supply chains, recirculate rare earths back to our domestic partners, ultimately delivering valuable economic benefit and environmental value.”

By scaling regional sourcing and processing of rare earth elements, Cyclic Materials is accelerating domestic deployment of rare earth elements supply infrastructure years faster than traditional mining projects, in addition to being much less resource intensive. The South Carolina project will also be supported by a range of federal and state incentives. Operations for the South Carolina campus are expected to begin in 2028, creating over 90 new highly skilled jobs for the state.

“Cyclic Materials’ new facility in Chesterfield County reflects the confidence companies have in South Carolina’s workforce and our ability to support advanced manufacturing. This over $82 million investment will bring jobs to the community and strengthen the local economy,” said South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.

Established in 2021, Cyclic Materials’ proprietary technologies are capable of economically and sustainably recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life magnet-containing products such as drones, robots, electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, MRI machines, and data center electronics. Cyclic Materials recently announced a Series C investment round of $75 Million USD led by T. Rowe Price, in addition to backing by global leaders including Microsoft, Amazon, Canada Growth Fund, Hitachi Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover's lnMotion fund, Energy Impact Partners, ArcTern Ventures, Fifth Wall and more. The company has forged strategic commercial partnerships with key industry leaders such as Solvay, Vattenfall, Lime, and VACUUMSCHMELZE to recycle magnets containing REEs and bring a circular and resilient rare earth supply chain to scale.

About Cyclic Materials

Cyclic Materials, founded in 2021, is a cleantech company building a resilient supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical materials through recycling of magnet-containing EOL. Its innovative technology transforms end-of-life products into valuable raw materials used in AI, robotics, defense and advanced manufacturing critical to the future of Western industry. With the success of its commercial demonstration, and first successful shipments of very high quality recycled Mixed Rare Earth Oxides (rMREO) to customers, the company is scaling its cutting-edge technology to recover REEs from permanent magnets, leveraging its proprietary MagCycle℠ and REEPure℠ processes to feed strategic industries with secure supply of recycled rMREO. Cyclic Materials is scaling its footprint across North America, Europe and Asia. With Mesa, Arizona hosting its first commercial scale Spoke facility, and Kingston, Ontario serving as a Centre of Excellence with R&D facility and Hub hydrometallurgical site, the company is expanding its REE recycling infrastructure in the US to supply the surging demand for permanent magnets that power our modern world. In recognition of its pioneering work, the company was named Top 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch by MIT Tech Review in 2025. Learn more at cyclicmaterials.earth.

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