European Researchers Recover 92.5% of Rare Earths from Used Magnets, Demonstrate Higher-Performance Recycling

Highlights

• Researchers at Slovenia's Jožef Stefan Institute achieved 92.5% rare earth recovery from used NdFeB magnets using electrochemical recycling and grain preservation techniques.
• Conventional liquid-phase sintering of recovered grains outperformed spark plasma sintering, achieving 1.26 T remanence and 1,100 kA/m coercivity in laboratory tests.
• Adding a neodymium-copper alloy to repair grain boundaries improved coercivity, a key measure of a magnet's resistance to demagnetization.
• The research, presented at the 2026 DIM-ESEE conference, synthesizes studies from 2019–2026 but has not yet been validated at industrial scale or assessed for commercial cost competitiveness.
• Direct magnet recycling could help Europe reduce dependence on imported rare earth oxides and newly produced metals if pilot-scale and cost hurdles are cleared.