Cyclic Materials secures US$25M to launch rare earth recycling hub

What happened: Cyclic Materials will launch North America’s first Centre of Excellence for rare earth recycling in Kingston, Ontario, backed by a US$25 million investment.

• With 140,000 sqft, the plant combines commercial-scale recycling with advanced R&D

• Cyclic has supply partnerships with Lime scooters, Solvay, and Glencore and counts Microsoft, Amazon, and Jaguar as investors

How it works: Cyclic recovers rare earth elements (REEs) like Neodymium and Dysprosium from end-of-life magnets found in EVs, wind turbines, and electronics. The company extracts and refines rare earths, which otherwise end up in landfills.

Cyclic extracts and refines these materials into recycled Mixed Rare Earth Oxides, returning them to the supply chain.

Cyclic operates a spoke-and-hub model: its Arizona Spoke breaks down magnet-containing waste, which is shipped to the Kingston Hub for final processing. Additional magnet scrap comes from industrial partners.

Why it matters: Rare earths are essential to electrification - they’re used in EV motors, wind turbines, and more - but over 90% of processing is controlled by China, which recently imposed limits on exports.

• Ford was forced to temporarily shut down one of its plants because of the limited supply

Less than 1% of rare earths are recycled today despite the environmental impact and difficulty of mining.

It’s a growing gap in the electrifcation supply chain - and an opening for Canada. By developing domestic recycling capacity, Canada could position itself as a secure supplier of critical materials for the energy transition.

Yes, but: The window of opportunity is narrowing. The EU recently greenlit 13 new critical minerals projects to reduce dependency on China.

A new report from the Canadian Climate Institute estimates that critical mineral demand could grow up to 90x by 2050, but Canada will need $30–65 billion in new investment to meet its potential.

What’s next: Cyclic plans to open the plant in 2026 with the ability to process 500 tonnes of magnets per year. The hub anchors Cyclic’s long-term plans to scale rare earth recycling across North America and Europe.

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