ERI, Cyclic Materials Ink Rare Earth Recycling Partnership

Electronic waste recycler ERI and Cyclic Materials signed a global strategic partnership agreement on Tuesday (July 21) to recover rare earth elements and critical minerals from discarded electronics, creating one of the largest commercial magnet recycling networks in North America.

Under the arrangement, ERI will use proprietary, AI-driven hardware and software across its eight US recycling facilities to isolate and pre-process magnet-heavy components. ERI will then ship the concentrated feedstock primarily to Cyclic Materials’ hub in Mesa, Arizona, which can process up to 25,000 tons of end-of-life components annually.

The two companies have already begun sample analysis to qualify specific product categories for processing.

Beyond feedstock supply, ERI and Cyclic Materials will jointly bid on commercial and government contracts to develop domestic circular supply chains for various advanced manufacturing sectors.

“As one of the world’s largest electronics recyclers, ERI processes an immense volume of products annually, and this partnership will transform that volume into an impactful supply of rare earths for the US,” said Cyclic CEO and founder Ahmad Ghahreman in a press release.

ERI recycles more than one million pounds of electronic waste daily and operates fully carbon-neutral, zero-waste processing centers, including its flagship supercenter in Plainfield, Indiana.

The alliance also furthers ERI’s push to commercialize the critical minerals trapped within its scrap streams.

Last November 2025, ERI signed a parallel processing agreement with ReElement Technologies, a subsidiary of American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC). Under the deal, ERI supplies end-of-life magnet materials to ReElement, which utilizes a modular refining platform to produce 99.99 percent pure rare earth oxides.

ReElement recently transitioned its large-scale commercial output to a 400,000-square-foot complex in Marion, Indiana, located just north of ERI's Plainfield operations, and has commenced trial shipments to defense and commercial partners.

Simultaneously, the new partnership guarantees ERI’s scrap will directly feed Cyclic Materials’ own North American expansion. In January, Cyclic Materials committed US$82 million to build a major recycling campus in McBee, South Carolina, designed to produce 600 tons of recycled mixed rare earth oxides annually, with plans to scale capacity to 1,800 tons.

Other domestic industrial players are also attempting to bypass traditional mining and break China’s dominance over heavy rare earth refining.

Last week, USA Rare Earth (NASDAQ:USAR) successfully extracted commercial-grade dysprosium and neodymium-praseodymium oxides from magnet scrap at its Wheat Ridge, Colorado demonstration plant.

Executives are projecting that recycled scrap will eventually fulfill up to 30 percent of the company's magnetic rare earth oxide feedstock requirements.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.