Highlights

• Mkango's HyProMag and Mkango UK win UK DRIVE35 funding for a £6.5M REACT-UK project developing a circular NdFeB magnet supply chain for electric vehicles.
• The consortium combines hydrogen-based recycling (HPMS) with downstream processing to produce automotive-grade magnets, partnering with JLR, EMR Group, and the University of Birmingham.
• The project remains at pilot-to-demonstration scale, with key challenges including technology scalability, feedstock availability, and competition from Chinese suppliers.

Mkango Resources Ltd. (MKA.V (opens in a new tab)) and its subsidiaries HyProMag (opens in a new tab) and Mkango Rare Earths UK (opens in a new tab) have secured UK government-backed funding to develop a circular supply chain for recycled rare earth magnets targeting automotive applications, though the effort remains early-stage and limited in scale.

Mkango Resources Ltd. announced that HyProMag Ltd. and Mkango Rare Earths UK have been selected as winners in the UK’s DRIVE35 R&D competition (opens in a new tab), securing partial funding for the REACT-UK project (opens in a new tab). The £6.5 million, three-year initiative—backed by the UK Department for Business and Trade via the Advanced Propulsion Centre (opens in a new tab) and Innovate UK (opens in a new tab)—aims to establish a domestic circular supply chain for neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets used in electric vehicles.

The consortium includes HyProMag, Mkango UK, Jaguar Land Rover, EMR Group, Less Common Metals (getting acquired by USA Rare Earth), and the University of Birmingham. The project will combine hydrogen-based recycling (HPMS) with downstream refining, alloying, and remanufacturing to produce high-coercivity automotive magnet grades.

While strategically aligned with UK ambitions for supply chain resilience and circularity, the initiative remains at pilot-to-demonstration scale. Key uncertainties include the ability to scale HPMS and chemical processing technologies, secure sufficient end-of-life feedstock, and compete with entrenched low-cost Chinese supply chains.

REACT-UK represents incremental progress toward Western magnet independence—but falls short of industrial-scale impact in the near term.