A Massachusetts company plans to invest $375 million in a rare earths processing facility opening in 2028 at Eastman Business Park in Greece.
The highly sought-after metals are key in the production of electric vehicles, electronics, and defense equipment, but China currently controls most of the supply.
Phoenix Tailings' operation — which the company has dubbed Freedom Separation — would cull the material from mine waste and other industrial sources in an industrial warehouse complex off 1600 Lexington Ave. in Greece.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the project Tuesday. The facility is expected to create at least 90 jobs, officials said, with the potential to support 200 jobs in the state. Construction should begin early next year.
When fully operational, the Greece facility could annually take in 20,000 tons of waste, delivered by rail in large industrial bulk bags called “super sacks.” and stored onsite in what the company described as “standard containers.” That much material would be enough to produce several thousand tons of rare earth metals at its other, downstream metallization facilities. The company would draw from mines in the United States, many in the west and southwest, as well as from South America, Southeast Asia and Australia.
“America and its allies cannot build the next generation of advanced manufacturing on a rare earth supply chain they do not control," said Phoenix co-founder and CEO Nick Myers, who received his master's in business administration degree from Rochester Institute of Technology.
In a news release, Myers noted that his grandfather Nicholas Sfikas started Rochester 100 Inc. making vinyl folders and holders "just 15 minutes from the site of our new facility."
"Growing up watching him build his amazing company, and having worked on the factory floor myself, I know firsthand the depth of talent and manufacturing expertise in Rochester,” Myers said.
“Technology can give America control over its critical supply chains, but it takes skilled, determined people to turn that promise into production," he continued. "Rochester has those people. They know how to build, how to innovate, and how to run world-class industrial operations.”
New York is contributing up to $3 million in tax credits, and the state as well as the town still must sign off on some provisions of the project. The federal government — through the Department of Defense's Office of Strategic Capitol and the Department of Energy — has committed more than $550 million combined to support the company.
The Greece facility is part of the company's larger $1.2 billion "Freedom Project" described as "an integrated separation-and-metallization platform designed to close a critical gap in U.S. midstream rare earth processing capacity."
“Phoenix Tailings will not only create at least 90 new jobs at Eastman Business Park further supporting our state’s innovation economy," Hochul said in a statement, "but they will also play a critical role in bolstering our national security by building a clean supply chain for rare earth elements in New York, reducing reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals.”
In making the announcement, Hochul described the project as an "environmentally friendly, rare earth mineral processing facility."
Mine waste "tailings" are considered toxic, both for the heavy metals and the chemicals used to extract them. Asked about health and safety concerns, a company spokesperson responded: "The Rochester facility will process feedstock from mined and recycled sources. We do not expect to receive material derived from mine tailings until 2030. That material would first be processed at the tailings site and upgraded into the same type of clean, marketable feedstock used by the facility."
Tailings is a type of feedstock that tends to be dirtier, with radioactive heavy metals like uranium and thorium. That material would be first processed at another site, yet to be built elsewhere, before being brought to the Greece, officials said.
"Clean processing is core to what we do," the statement continued. "We hold our operations to the highest safety standards, drawing on our experience operating facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire."
Phoenix Tailings opened its first rare-earth refining facility last year in New Hampshire, announcing in October 2025 that the metallization facility had a capacity of 200 tons per year — taking in the oxides that would be produced at the Greece facility and producing finished metal. The company announced last week that it had completed preliminary designs for a commercial-scale separation system.
The company selected the Eastman Business Park site after a nationwide search that investigated 150 sites in all 50 states, officials said.
In a provided statement, a company spokesman said the site fits with the goal to reuse and adapt existing industrial sites, while also offering the infrastructure and transportation access to move ahead quickly. The area's engineering and manufacturing workforce was another deciding factor, the company said, noting the "deep experience in advanced manufacturing, chemical processing, and plant operations."
Hiring for all roles at the Greece facility is planned to be done in 2027, with positions including operations, maintenance, engineering, technical services and administration.
