Rare-Earth Startup Lines Up $500 Million in Pentagon Funding (1)

Rare-earth refiner Phoenix Tailings Inc. received a conditional $500 million loan from the Pentagon, the latest White House deal to boost production of rare-earth elements in the US.

The long-term debt financing would support construction of a proposed plant that is supposed to produce a range of rare earths by 2028, the Massachusetts-based company said in a Tuesday statement. Phoenix Tailings is one of many companies pushing to build what would be the first new US rare-earth processing plants in decades.

The commitment from the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital is part of a roughly $1 billion initiative ...