E-scrap recycler ERI has invested to help build out the processing network of Cyclic Materials, marking the first time a recycling company has put money into a rare earths downstream partner.
The move builds upon a partnership reached earlier in the summer that saw ERI agree to pre-process materials at its eight US facilities, then route those materials to Cyclic for rare earth extraction. Cyclic, through its proprietary technology and infrastructure, will process feedstock exclusively prepared for it by ERI, which recycles more than 1 million pounds of e-scrap per day.
Terms of this deal weren’t disclosed, but it coincides with a nearly $75 million financing round Cyclic just completed. The company’s total equity funding now stands at $237 million. The money will be used to speed up the buildout of Cyclic’s rare earth recycling campus in South Carolina in 2028, and its general US infrastructure.
“It’s an honor and privilege to extend our existing partnership with Cyclic as a strategic investor, so that we can further support our joint mission to bring new levels of efficiency to closing the loop on critical minerals,” ERI Chairman and CEO John Shegerian said. “Cyclic’s innovative technology and state-of-the-art facility provide commercial capabilities that make the circularity of heavy rare earth elements more accessible than ever before.”
Cyclic opened its first commercial-scale mineral recycling facility in Arizona earlier this month. That facility in Mesa will have a processing capacity of 25,000 metric tons per year and is expected to begin making shipments by the end of this month.
Ahmad Ghahreman, Cyclic’s founder and CEO, said the move will bolster both companies’ efforts to build up a domestic mineral supply chain, meeting recent calls from the federal government to decrease foreign mineral reliance.
“We are building a new domestic source of rare earths by recovering valuable materials already in circulation and returning them to the supply chain, which derisks foreign trade tensions, increases supply chain resilience and strengthens national security,” he said. “ERI’s investment further strengthens a partnership that combines their extraordinary sourcing reach with Cyclic’s rare earth recovery technologies and infrastructure.”
Cyclic operates under a hub-and-spoke network that sees end-of-life devices and products processed elsewhere then sent to a central hub, where it uses two technologies in its refining. Its MagCycle automated technology separates magnets from end-of-life products to make the company’s rare earth magnet concentrate, Max-Xtract, which is made from minerals such as copper, aluminum and steel. Clean copper, aluminum and other metals are also recovered in this process.
The company’s REEPure process, meanwhile, refines isolated magnet material into mixed rare earth oxides. In both cases, the resulting material is sold to companies to create new products for use in industries such as automotive, AI and energy.
This move is the latest in a global growth push for ERI in 2026. It entered agreements earlier this year to co-own facilities in India, Vietnam and Japan.
