Mine waste refiner Phoenix Tailings has been selected for a $66-million grant from the US Department of Energy’s (DoE's) Rare Earth Demonstration Facility Programme, which will advance commercial deployment of its proprietary rare earth separation technology as part of a $147.8-million project.

Building on the company’s existing rare earth metallisation operations, Phoenix Tailings, in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Minnesota, will deploy and scale next-generation technologies that can recover heavy rare earth materials from a diverse range of domestic feedstocks.

Phoenix Tailings currently operates commercial rare earth metallisation facilities and supplies rare earth metals to industrial customers. This project expands the company's capabilities upstream into separation, creating a more integrated domestic refining platform.

Rare earth separation remains one of the most constrained segments of the global critical minerals supply chain. By combining commercial metallisation with next generation separation technologies, Phoenix Tailings is creating a more resilient domestic supply chain for the materials required in defence systems, advanced manufacturing, consumer electronics, and energy technologies, the company says.

Phoenix Tailings' refining platform is built on three major technology pillars: advanced chemistry, industrial hardware, and digital infrastructure.

The company's recent acquisition of Machinery Partner further expanded its capabilities in AI, automation, and manufacturing optimisation. Together, these technologies enable Phoenix Tailings to continuously improve performance, accelerate scale up, and deliver a new generation of rare earth refining technologies.

The DoE award validates Phoenix Tailings' integrated approach to rare earth refining. Building upon the company's existing commercial metallisation capabilities, the project supports deployment of advanced separation technologies capable of processing a diverse range of domestic feedstocks. Through partnerships with MIT and the University of Minnesota, the project combines world class expertise in process engineering, automation, advanced analytics, and feedstock characterization.

MIT will support automation, advanced analytics, real time sensing, AI-enabled controls and process optimisation. In turn, the University of Minnesota will support feedstock characterisation and validation, helping demonstrate the ability to process a broad range of domestic feedstocks at commercial scale.

"The US will win at rare earth processing with American innovation that outcompetes the hazardous legacy systems used overseas,” says Phoenix Tailings cofounder and CEO Nicholas Myers.

“This award validates our next-generation processing platform and speeds up our commercial scaling. With advanced chemistry, industrial hardware, digital infrastructure, and world-class partners like MIT and the University of Minnesota, we are ready to strengthen America’s rare earth supply chain with innovation that surpasses anything available in traditional processes.”