Phoenix Tailings Selects Rochester Site for Freedom Rare-Earth Separation Plant

Phoenix Tailings has selected Eastman Business Park in Rochester, New York, as the location for Freedom Separation, its planned commercial-scale rare-earth separation facility. The October 20 announcement gives the company’s broader Freedom Project a defined industrial site and a timetable: production is expected to begin ramping in 2027, with full production slated for 2028. 1

The project is designed to process more than 18,000 tons a year of variable rare-earth feedstock and produce more than 4,400 tons a year of separated rare-earth oxides at full capacity, according to Phoenix Tailings. Feedstock is intended to include both mined and recycled materials. That dual-source design could provide operating flexibility, but the company has not yet established commercial output: the quoted volumes are full-capacity expectations, not current production. 1

Separation is a consequential step in the rare-earth supply chain because mixed feedstocks must be converted into separated oxides before they can support downstream metal production. Phoenix describes Freedom Separation as part of its Freedom Project, an integrated separation-and-metallization platform designed to address U.S. midstream processing capacity. The company values that broader project at more than $1.2 billion, though its announcement does not break out a cost for the Rochester separation facility itself. 1

The site decision matters because it moves the proposed separation operation from a general development plan to a named location with existing industrial infrastructure. Phoenix said Eastman Business Park was selected after a nationwide search and cited the site’s industrial base as well as Rochester’s engineering, chemical-processing, advanced-manufacturing and plant-operations workforce. The company expects the facility, once fully operational, to support more than 200 direct jobs in New York, including 90 at launch. 1

Those employment figures, like the processing and output estimates, remain forward-looking. The planned 2027 ramp is not equivalent to sustained commercial capacity, and the 2028 full-production target leaves meaningful execution work ahead in construction, commissioning, feedstock supply and plant operations. Neither the announcement nor the company’s press-page extract provides a construction start date, project financing terms, customer commitments or permitting milestones for the Rochester facility. 1

Phoenix has been building a wider rare-earth strategy during 2026. Its press page records a June announcement concerning a Department of War-supported initiative of roughly $1 billion to rebuild U.S. rare-earth industrial capacity, as well as a February announcement of $40.2 million in strategic capital for U.S. rare-earth metals production. The supplied extracts do not state that either item constitutes financing for the Rochester facility, so they should not be treated as funds available for Freedom Separation construction. 4

For the domestic rare-earth market, Rochester is therefore a concrete pipeline milestone rather than a near-term supply change. If Phoenix reaches its stated schedule, the facility would add a sizable planned source of separated oxides from both virgin and recycled inputs. Until ramp-up begins and the plant reaches its targeted operating rate, however, the announced capacity remains prospective. The next material markers will be evidence of project execution at Eastman Business Park and progress toward the company’s 2027 commissioning timetable. 1