Abstract:
Cyclic Materials uses proprietary processes to recover rare earth metals from electronic waste. In the author’s view, the company has been less than forthcoming about the hazardous materials used in these processes. Since the site of the Cyclic Materials plant would be in the Alligator Rural Water and Sewer Company and Deer Park Water, a chance that substances used by Cyclic Materials could create a situation that would threaten the quality of the raw material used by Deer Park and Alligator Rural Water must be factored into any decision to allow Cyclic Materials to create a metal refinery in the Alligator Industrial Park, in McBee, SC.
Recently, Cyclic Materials announced it would build a refining operation at the Alligator Industrial Park in McBee, South Carolina. A review of the intended operations from publicly available sources suggests their business isn’t the kind you want right next door to the water source for two-thirds of Chesterfield County’s population. Let’s look at what kind of operation Cyclic Materials would run if they are allowed to proceed.
Cyclic Materials is a Canadian company formed to reclaim rare earth elements from electronic devices, such as hard drives, cell phones, and high-efficiency electric motors, as well as from scrap material generated during manufacturing. Overall, it is a noble and necessary area of recovery that will help reduce America’s and other countries’ dependence on China for these materials. They also plan to recover other valuable metals such as nickel and copper, along with other common metallic elements and, I would think, gold and silver as an additional bonus. The question, though, is whether the possibility of an environmental disaster is worth endangering Chesterfield County’s water supply. To answer that, we must look at the processes Cyclic Materials plans to use in this recovery.
Cyclic Materials’ founder, along with others, has filed a patent application for this unique process. The application was published on December 4, 2025, and assigned the Publication number US 2025/0369072 A1 ( Send me a request if you would like a copy of the application). This application includes a general description of the process and explains why it is unique and deserves patent protection. From this information, one can deduce the chemical processes required to separate the individual items Cyclic Materials wishes to obtain and sell.
The first source of rare earth magnets is cell phones, motors, hard drives, and other outdated electronic products. A second source of rare-earth magnets will be machine waste, called “SWARF,” along with defective magnets generated during final part fabrication. These two sources are treated differently, and I will detail both processes.
Every day, millions of electronic products containing rare earth elements are disposed of. This represents enormous potential for recycling, reducing toxic waste in our landfills, and providing a domestic source of rare earth elements while lowering our dependence on offshore sources. The problem for recyclers is that the amount of metals in an individual device is minuscule. To extract the metals profitably, one has to completely destroy the device and extract the metals chemically. This is the method Cyclic Materials plans to use in McBee.
Electronic devices would be pulverized, most likely using a hammer or ball mill. The parts would be reduced to small, grain-like particles, down to a sand-like consistency.
This material would then be transferred to a moving conveyor belt and pass under a rotating magnetic drum, which would hold the magnetic particles, allowing the nonmagnetic material to fall off the belt and the magnetic particles to be scraped off right after. This magnetic material would include the rare earth materials and any ferromagnetic (iron) material.
At this point, the materials are separated into two types: magnetic and nonmagnetic. Next, the metals must be separated into groups. Because of the particle size, the only way to separate them is chemically. This method turns the metals into corresponding salts. For example, Copper might be converted to copper sulfate, and Nickel could be converted to nickel oxalate dihydrate. Before we go further into the actual recovery of the metals, we should review the other raw material stream that Cyclic Materials plans to process to recover rare earth elements and other metals. This raw material is described as “SWARF.”
SWARF is the waste material generated when processing rare earth materials into the final product for use in cell phones, hard drives, electric motors, and other items. This material will most likely be received as an oily material, since cutting fluids are used in machining to produce the end component for the electronic device; the first step in processing the SWARF will be to degrease the material. This can be done in two ways: using a water-based cleaning solution, like the detergent you use to clean clothes or dishes, or solvent degreasing with a polar solvent like 1,1,1-trichloroethylene. Both methods will require treating the cleaning solutions at some point.
Recovering the rare-earth metals at this point requires a process known as “chemical leaching.” Chemical leaching involves passing a solution through a mass of material containing the rare-earth metals. The rare-earth metals are converted to a corresponding salt that remains in the processing solution.
Normal leaching solutions use an acid or base to create the corresponding ionic (salt) form of the metal. Another approach uses an oxidizing agent, then a chelating material to trap the metallic elements. Once again, each of these methods would require extensive waste treatment to allow disposal of the water used in the process.
As you have read, extracting rare-earth elements from electronic waste is a complex industrial process. The question is, “How much rare earth will be recovered and how much will it be worth?”
You can find the amount of rare earth metals in a cell phone here: Rare Earths and Metals in Your Smartphone: What You’re Paying For. As you can see, the amount of rare earths in a cell phone is extremely small, just 190 milligrams. The same is true for hard drives, as shown here: Recycling Rare Earth Elements from Hard Drives.
Let’s do a little bit of math. By using the following equation, we can calculate the amount of rare earths in 1,000,000 cellphones:
If one phone contains ~190 mg of rare earths (Nd + Pr combined), then one million phones would contain:
These 190 grams would be divided like this:
160 grams of neodymium and 30 grams of praseodymium. The total value of these rare earths would be, according to Strategic Investment Invest (all quotes September 14, 2026):
Neodymium – $244.90/kg x 0.160kg = $39.184 for 160 grams
Praseodymium – $245.40/kg x 0.030 grams = $7.326 for 30 grams
So one million used cell phones would be worth $46.51.
One million cells only yields $46.51 after a huge amount of processing? This sure doesn’t sound like a very profitable venture! Rare earth metals might be important, but one has to make money recovering them. Might there be something else going on?
If you review the article “Rare Earths and Metals in Your Smartphone: What You’re Paying For,” you will find a list of other valuable metals in a cell phone. These metals are gold, silver, lithium, cobalt, and copper. Let’s take a look at these metals.
Starting with copper (10 grams per phone) and using the previous formula, the amount of copper for one metric ton of phones would be:
According to COPPERPRICE.ORG, copper was $0.0141 per gram on September 14th. This price would return $141,000.00.
Let’s take a look at cobalt next. Once again, we plug in the numbers:
According to Daily Metal Prices, cobalt was $0.04238 per gram on September 11th. This price would give us $296,660.00.
Now we’ll look at lithium.
Once again, we look at Daily Metal Prices. The price of lithium on September 11th was $0.02120 per gram. Using this number, the total value is $21,200.00 for those 1 million cell phones.
Silver is the next one on the list.
Turning again to Daily Metal Prices. The price was $2.05 per gram on September 11th. So the silver in those cell phones would be worth $184,500.00.
Now for the last metal on the list, Gold. Rare Earths and Metals in Your Smartphone: What You’re Paying For” tells us that there are about 36 milligrams per phone. Therefore:
Daily Metal Prices quotes gold on September 11th at $139.61 per gram. At that price, the gold recovered from those 1 million phones would be worth $5,025,960!
So let’s add this all up:
| Copper | $141,000 |
| Cobalt | $296,660 |
| Lithium | $21,200 |
| Silver | $184,000 |
| Gold | $5,025,960 |
| Total non-rare earth metals per 1 million cell phones | $5,668,660 |
Let’s put this into perspective: one million cell phones will yield $5,668,660 in metals, excluding rare-earth elements. Those same one million cell phones would also yield $46.51 in rare-earth elements. So the question is, who really believes that Cyclic Materials’ business is extracting rare-earth metals?
The metals I have calculated are just a few of the metals present in a cell phone. The phones also contain extractable amounts of precious metals such as palladium and platinum, along with nickel and iron. In the end, this waste is actually a high-quality gold ore, much higher than what you would find in nature. To take advantage of this, it would need to be treated like a natural ore source: refined to obtain these metals. Now it is time to look at how one would retrieve these metals from this mass of mixed material, with the main portion being plastic.
Refining is a chemical-dependent process that requires large quantities of hazardous material. For example, one current method for extracting gold from ore is leaching with Sodium Cyanide because of its high extraction rates and processing cost. Other methods include thiosulfate-, bromide-, and chloride-based solutions. Further, there is work being done on biological extraction, but cyanide remains the industry standard. Here is a very good source for more information on these processes: A Comprehensive Guide to the Gold Leaching Process
Cobalt and Nickel can be leached using a Sulfuric Acid Hydrogen Peroxide solution. This article might help you understand this process: Recovery of Cobalt from Spent Lithium-Ion Mobile Phone Batteries Using Liquid–Liquid Extraction
Copper is currently extracted from Cell Phone waste with a process like this:
Pre‑treatment (Polymer Removal)
Waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) from discarded cellphones are shredded to increase surface area.
The shredded boards are treated with NaOH solution to remove or loosen the polymer coating and adhesives
Two‑Step Leaching
Step 1: Low‑concentration HNO₃ is used to leach out solders and other metals except copper. This reduces interference from other metals in the next step
Step 2: A H₂O₂‑added HCl solution is applied to selectively leach copper from the remaining PCB material
This sequential approach maximizes copper recovery while minimizing co‑extraction of unwanted metals.
For those unfamiliar with the chemical formulas, this process uses sodium hydroxide, nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and hydrochloric acid. This is a virtual potpourri of chemicals. Further information on this process can be found here:
Without going into detail, other financially valuable metals in cell phones would be extracted using methods as chemically complex as those described.
At this point, the metals have been extracted from the waste material as their corresponding metallic salts. They would still need to be converted back to a metallic state for reuse. Normally, this involves electrowinning, a method in which an electric current passes through a solution of metallic salts and is collected at the cathode as a metal. Another method is essentially the same but uses a molten solution of the metallic salt. Either way, these are nasty processing methods.
The rare-earth materials will also be extracted via a leaching process involving acids and various chemicals. They would also have to be converted back to a metallic state and manufactured into a form that industry can use. Once again, this is a complex process involving numerous chemical steps.
There might be many more chemicals used in extracting all of these various metals, but a list of them as presented in this paper is:
1,1,1-Trichloroethylene
Alkaline Cleaning materials, including surfactants and chelating agents.
Sodium cyanide
Sulfuric Acid
Hydrochloric Acid
Nitric Acid
Hydrogen Peroxide, industrial grade
Sodium Hydroxide
Oxalic Acid
Thiosulfates
Each of these chemicals must be treated before disposal, but any breach of containment in the building where they are used would pose a serious environmental problem. In addition, many of these compounds would be the corresponding metallic salts. Any release of these compounds from the processing area into the surrounding environment would be a serious problem.
The scope of what Cyclic Materials is planning for this facility is also a concern. Cyclic Materials has reported that it wants to produce 2000 tons of Mixed Rare Earth Oxides (MREO), with an expansion to 6000 tons planned in the near future. To show how much waste material would be needed to produce this, I will use a cell phone as an example to calculate the number. Cell Phones weigh between 130 and 250 grams. I will use the mid-range of 180 grams for these calculations. Using this weight, the number of cell phones in one ton would be:
1 ton = 1,000,000 grams
1,000,000 grams ÷ 180 grams 5,600 cellphones
Since the oxides of these rare earth metals contain about 90% of the metal, the amount of rare earth oxides that would be created from each cellphone would be 190 milligrams
212 milligrams x 5,600 cellphones would = 1,187,200 milligrams, or 1187.2 grams.
Now I want to convert to Kilograms for easier calculations. 1187.2 grams equals 1.187 kilograms, rounded to 1.2 kilograms.
One ton of cell phones will yield 1.2 kilograms of rare-earth oxides.
Since 1 metric ton equals 1,000 kilograms, it would take 843 tons of cell phones to make 1 metric ton of rare-earth oxides. To obtain 2,000 tons of oxides would therefore require 1,686,000 tons of cell phones.
Now I don’t really think all of these oxides will come from cell phones, since the amount needed would exceed a billion phones. But the amount of material to process to meet Cyclic Materials’ goals is astronomical.
Cyclic Materials has announced plans to build this refinery in the Alligator Industrial Park in McBee, South Carolina. It will join a few other plants, most notably Alligator Rural Water and Sewer Company and Deer Park Natural Spring Water. These companies have opposite industrial pursuits. While Cyclic Materials will refine metals to recover them from electronic waste, Deer Park and Alligator require high-purity water sources to produce their final products. As you might expect, Cyclic Materials’ operations could affect the other two if an accident damaged the water quality beneath either facility.
Chesterfield County has what most other areas of the country would love: the Middendorf Aquifer. This aquifer has been measured to contain a large volume of easily accessible, pure water. In many areas, the water table is 50 feet below ground level and is composed of sand/clay, which allows rainwater to be absorbed quickly. This makes it an ideal aquifer for delivering high-quality water via wells, as both Alligator Water and Deer Park have used it. But it also makes it vulnerable to contamination from accidental spills that the same sand/clay mixture would absorb. Put another way, if you spill something on the ground above the aquifer, it can transfer to the water fairly quickly. This raises a question: “Why build a metal refinery next to industries that require the highest purity water that is available?”
I was going to include a table of the chemicals the EPA monitors for drinking water quality. The list, though, is extensive and would just overwhelm the purpose of this paper. If you would like to see the complete list, along with the maximum levels the EPA considers safe for drinking, you can find it here: National Primary Drinking Water Regulations
I will, though, give you a few examples of these limits in regard to the chemicals that Cyclic Materials will be using:
1,1,1-Trichloroethylene – 0.2 ppm (parts per million)
Lead – 0 ppm
Cyanide – 0.2 ppm
These are just a few examples of what could enter the water if an abnormal incident occurred at the Cyclic Materials operation. This raises the most important question of them all: “Is it prudent to allow Cyclic Materials to build a metal refinery next to and over the water aquifer that supplies the drinking water to over 75% of the citizens of Chesterfield County, South Carolina?” There is only one answer to this: NO!
I believe Cyclic Materials offers an essential service to this country by recycling electronic waste while reducing our dependence on foreign sources for rare-earth metals and other metals. Recycling this waste and extracting valuable substances will prevent them from entering our environment in uncontrolled ways. The proposed facility location in Chesterfield County must change. Of all the places available in our county, this is the one place they should never be allowed to build their plant.