Why recycling of NdFeB magnets?

Recycling of permanent magnets is very important to reduce the dependency on the primary supply of REEs in future. The Global Stock of major three REE elements present in NdFeB magnets was calculated to be 94kt with a distribution of Nd with 62.6% and Pr/Dy occupying 15.7% of the total. (Yang, et al., 2017).

 If this stock is efficiently recycled can sufficiently add resources in the geological stock. Another major advantage of recycling is prevention of radioactive waste produced during the extraction of REEs from the primary resources (Krishnamurthy & Gupta, 2016). Moreover, recycling also tackle the challenge of “Balance problem”, mostly to extract Nd/Dy excess of La/Ce is also mined because they exist in the same ore body.

Source: Garside, M. (2021, 03 08). Statista. Retrieved from Mining, Metals & Minerals