Critical Minerals Recyclers
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Critical minerals recyclers are scaling unevenly, and the company filings show both openings and failures. Cyclic Materials opened a plant in Mesa, Arizona on 9 September 2026 that can process up to 25,000 tonnes a year of end-of-life products containing magnets, while Ascend Elements, a US battery recycler, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 9 April 2026 and its liquidation plan took effect on 8 September 2026. In China, CATL's subsidiary Brunp says it processed over 120,000 tonnes of used batteries in 2024.
25,000 t
a year of magnet-bearing end-of-life products: processing capacity of Cyclic Materials' plant in Mesa, Arizona, opened 9 September 2026
Source: Greater Phoenix Economic Council
120,000 t+
of used batteries processed by CATL's recycling subsidiary Brunp in 2024, per CATL statements
Source: electrive, October 2025
61,000 t
a year of combined capacity in the Li-Cycle assets Glencore bought in August 2025, of which only the German site was running
Source: Waste Dive
29
of the European Commission's 106 strategic projects are recycling projects
Which companies recycle batteries and magnets, and how far have they got?
The table lists recyclers by what each says it has built or processed, and it states the status of each as the source gives it. The first five rows are battery recyclers and the last four are rare earth magnet recyclers.
| Company | What and where | Reported scale and status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redwood Materials | Battery recycling and refining, Nevada | Says its Nevada campus received over 20 GWh of batteries a year and produced 60,000 t of critical minerals in 2025. Company statements, not audited figures. | Redwood, 2025 review |
| Glencore (former Li-Cycle assets) | Battery recycling in the US, Canada and Germany | Completed the purchase of Li-Cycle's assets on 8 August 2025 for a bid of about $40 million. Five facilities with combined capacity of 61,000 t a year; only the German site was running. The Rochester, New York hub never began operating. | Waste Dive |
| Ascend Elements | Battery recycling, Georgia and Kentucky | Filed for Chapter 11 on 9 April 2026 in the Southern District of Texas; the court confirmed a liquidation plan on 17 August 2026, effective 8 September. A Texas court approved a $31.7 million bid from Turner-Kokosing for the unfinished Hopkinsville, Kentucky plant on 4 June 2026. | ElevenFlo docket, Industrial Info |
| Umicore | Pilot battery recycling plant, Hoboken, Belgium | Annual capacity of 7,000 t, equivalent to 20,000 car batteries, with a company claim of over 95% nickel recovery. Umicore also promotes the OREON nickel recycling project on the Commission's 2026 list. | Umicore |
| Brunp (CATL) | Battery recycling, China | 2024: over 120,000 t of used batteries processed and 17,100 t of recycled lithium salts, with reported recovery of 99.6% for nickel, cobalt and manganese and 96.5% for lithium. Reported through CATL statements. | electrive |
| Cyclic Materials | Magnet-bearing end-of-life products, Mesa, Arizona | Opened 9 September 2026 with capacity of up to 25,000 t a year; over 7,000 t delivered; investment over $30 million. A South Carolina campus combining recovery and refining is in development. Announced a $75 million financing on 27 August 2026. | GPEC, Cyclic |
| HyProMag (Mkango and CoTec) | Hydrogen processing of magnet scrap, UK and Texas | Texas hub: commissioning of finished magnet equipment targeted for the first half of 2027 and of the processing section for the second quarter of 2028; initial output about 400 t of recycled magnets and 278 t of co-products a year, 1,526 t at full target. No project financing reported as secured on 27 July 2026. | CoTec release |
| Noveon Magnetics | Magnet-to-magnet recycling, San Marcos, Texas | Offtake agreement with Nidec signed in February 2025; a memorandum of understanding with Lynas in October 2025 to support a US magnet supply chain. Capacity not stated. | SMM, Lynas |
| Proterial (Japan) | Magnet recovery from hard disks and compressors | Neodymium recovery of around 94% and annual recycled output of only a few hundred tonnes, as reported by SMM. | SMM |
Scale figures are the companies' or their reporters' own and mix capacity, tonnes processed and tonnes recovered, so rows are not comparable. The Ascend status was read in a docket tracker and trade press rather than the court order. Brunp and Proterial figures come from secondary reports (electrive and SMM). E-waste and smelter recyclers such as Aurubis and Boliden are not tabulated because their recycling output was not verified for this page.
What do these filings show about recycling at scale?
Recycling at scale depends on feedstock and finance, and the table shows both constraints. Li-Cycle's assets sold for about $40 million with only one of five sites running, and Ascend Elements' unfinished Kentucky plant sold for $31.7 million after its Chapter 11 filing. Magnet recyclers show a mixed pattern in 2026: Cyclic Materials opened its Arizona plant in September, while HyProMag targets the second quarter of 2028 for the processing section of its Texas hub with project financing still under discussion.
Capacity to process end-of-life products is not the same as metal recovered. Cyclic's 25,000 tonnes is feedstock capacity for magnet-bearing products, not tonnes of rare earth oxide. For scale, Lynas produced 7,260 tonnes of NdPr oxide in the year to June 2026, whereas HyProMag's Texas hub targets 1,526 tonnes of magnetic products at full capacity, although the two are different products. The page on recycling economics shows how price swings between 2022 and 2025 affected the value of recovered metals.
Which recyclers are on the official lists?
The European Commission has recognised 29 recycling projects among its 106 strategic projects, and the list names each promoter and country. The recycling plants page sets them out with the US Department of War recyclers, and the battery recycling page explains the EU Batteries Regulation targets that create demand for recycled content. Being on a list is a regulatory status and does not show that a plant is operating.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the largest battery recyclers?
Brunp, a subsidiary of CATL, reported processing over 120,000 tonnes of used batteries in 2024, and Redwood Materials says its Nevada campus receives over 20 GWh of batteries a year. Glencore holds Li-Cycle assets with 61,000 tonnes of capacity, although only one site was running. No audited ranking exists.
What happened to Ascend Elements?
Ascend Elements filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas on 9 April 2026. A liquidation plan was confirmed on 17 August 2026 and took effect on 8 September, and a Texas court approved the sale of the unfinished Hopkinsville plant to Turner-Kokosing for $31.7 million.
Which companies recycle rare earth magnets?
Cyclic Materials opened a magnet-bearing product plant in Mesa, Arizona on 9 September 2026, HyProMag is planning a Texas hub and operates a UK plant, Noveon Magnetics makes recycled magnets in Texas and Proterial recovers magnets in Japan. Their outputs are small compared with primary rare earth supply.
Is recycling capacity the same as recycling output?
Recycling capacity is not recycling output. Capacity states what a plant could process, such as Cyclic's 25,000 tonnes of end-of-life products, while output states metal recovered, and many plants report only capacity or targets. Check which of the two a source gives.
Sources
Read on October 13, 2026. Figures on this page come from these documents; where a number is an estimate, the source says so.
- Redwood Materials: Tahoe campus. Company statement
- Redwood Materials: 2025, a defining year. Company statement
- Waste Dive: Glencore completes takeover of Li-Cycle assets (8 August 2025)
- ElevenFlo: Ascend Elements, Inc. docket summary (Case 26-90440). Docket tracker; the court order was not read
- Industrial Info: Contractor partnership wins Kentucky battery recycling plant in Chapter 11 auction. Trade press
- Umicore: Nickel recycling and refining. Company statement
- electrive: CATL subsidiary Brunp reports progress in battery recycling (23 October 2025). Press report of CATL statements
- Greater Phoenix Economic Council: Cyclic Materials opens Mesa facility (9 September 2026)
- Cyclic Materials: news releases
- CoTec Holdings: HyProMag USA update (27 July 2026), via Stockwatch
- Lynas Rare Earths: 2026 Annual Report
- SMM: Global rare earth recycling surges (31 August 2026). Trade press analysis
- Commission Decision C(2026) 8051, annex (9 October 2026)
