Overview
- This week the Department of Defense’s Office of Strategic Capital announced conditional loan commitments of $500 million for Phoenix Tailings and $725 million for Energy Fuels that together total roughly $1.2–$1.25 billion in announced support.
- Phoenix Tailings says its planned Freedom Facility will use proprietary chemistry and equipment to separate and metallize rare earths and aims to begin operations in 2028 subject to customary financial, legal and technical close conditions.
- Energy Fuels will use the OSC backing to expand separation and metallization capabilities at its White Mesa Mill and through planned acquisitions and partnerships, with its $725 million commitment also contingent on due diligence and approvals.
- Officials frame the loans as targeted fixes for the midstream bottleneck between mining and magnet manufacture, and OSC says the actions are part of a broader FY2026 push that mobilized roughly $11 billion in public and private capital.
- Analysts and lawmakers warn the projects face hard technical scaling challenges such as separating mixed ores and handling radioactive monazite waste, and they note growing congressional and legal scrutiny of the Pentagon’s financing methods.