The Pentagon just wrote a half-billion-dollar check to a startup that pulls rare earth metals out of mining waste. Phoenix Tailings, a company that extracts and refines rare earth elements from industrial byproducts, landed a $500 million conditional loan commitment from the Department of Defense’s Office of Strategic Capital.
Combined with private investment, the total funding package is expected to approach $1 billion. That kind of money buys you a new processing facility, expanded operations, and a meaningful step toward untangling the US from China’s grip on the materials that power everything from fighter jets to electric vehicles.
What Phoenix Tailings is actually building
The company plans to use the financing to expand its existing facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Exeter, New Hampshire, while also constructing an entirely new plant. That new facility has been branded the “Freedom Facility,” which will handle rare earth separation and metallization processes.
Phoenix Tailings focuses specifically on heavy rare earth elements, including dysprosium, terbium, and neodymium-praseodymium, commonly referred to as NdPr. These materials are essential for permanent magnets used in defense systems, wind turbines, and EV motors.
