in the last 15 years contain millions of tonnes of permanent magnets now
approaching end of life. How the world recycles that stock will
determine a meaningful share of rare-earth supply through the 2030s —
and it will shape whether the supply-demand gap that Adamas Intelligence
projects actually materialises.¹
since the early 2010s. That growth has produced a large installed base
of magnets embedded in vehicles, turbines and industrial equipment. A
typical electric vehicle carries 2-5 kilogrammes of magnets; a modern
direct-drive wind turbine generator can hold several hundred kilogrammes
per megawatt.¹ As the oldest of these installations approach end of
life, they become feedstock for recycling — if the recycling
infrastructure exists to process them.
suggest that globally recoverable rare-earth content in decommissioned
industrial motors could reach 5,000-8,000 tonnes per year by the early
primary supply is structurally tight.
steps that differ meaningfully from primary-ore processing. End-of-life
magnets are first recovered from the parent product, typically through
mechanical dismantling or shredding. The recovered magnets are then
demagnetised, crushed and processed through one of several chemical
pathways: hydrometallurgical leaching to dissolve rare earths and
separate them from iron and boron, pyrometallurgical routes using
molten-salt electrolysis, or direct recycling approaches that re-sinter
the recovered magnet material with minimal chemical intervention.
separated rare-earth oxides but requires substantial chemical inputs.
recycling is fastest and least resource-intensive but yields material
that can only substitute for lower-grade magnet applications rather than
automotive- or defence-grade products.
end-of-life feedstock growth implies. Several pilot operations run in
competitive with primary production for magnet-grade output. The gap is
closing, however, as rare-earth prices rise and as engineering
optimisation of recycling circuits proceeds.
capability alongside its new primary-production capacity. The joint
venture between Viridis Mining and Minerals and the UK-listed Ionic Rare
magnet recycling with ionic-clay concentrate processing.²
recycling dimension of the Poços de Caldas hub. The company has
developed a hydrometallurgical approach tailored to magnet feedstock
that aims to produce separated rare-earth oxides at competitive cost.
same facility, the two streams can share infrastructure — chemical
plant, utilities, workforce, analytical capability — in ways that
standalone recycling facilities cannot.
globally, a Brazilian facility with recycling capability positioned to
serve Western customers sits at the intersection of two increasingly
valuable capabilities: non-Chinese separation and non-primary supply.
becomes available), making throughput more predictable.
magnet rare earths through the coming decades. Global undersupply of
dysprosium and terbium oxides is forecast to rise to 1,800 tonnes and
current annual production of each oxide — and approximately US$7.3
billion of magnet rare-earth-oxide demand will go unmet by 2040 unless
new supply grows materially beyond current base-case expectations.¹
currently projected. If recycling can add 5,000-8,000 tonnes per year to
supply by the early 2030s — and if a meaningful share of that total
carries heavy-rare-earth content — the deficit narrows. The arithmetic
makes recycling not an environmental nice-to-have but a material
component of the solution to the projected shortfall.
raise the revenue per tonne recovered from recycled magnets
substantially above the levels that defined 2020-2023.³ Projects that
were marginal three years ago are now clearly economic.
logistics remain fragmented. Magnets in end-of-life vehicles, turbines
and electronics are not easy to separate, and the reverse-supply-chain
infrastructure required to route them to recycling facilities is
underdeveloped. In Europe, regulatory frameworks under the EU Battery
and End-of-Life Vehicle Directives are being updated to address this,
but implementation is uneven.
composition, coating and condition, and processing economics depend on
sorting and pre-treatment to deliver consistent input. Recyclers that
can handle heterogeneous feedstock reliably will have a meaningful
advantage over those that can only process specific magnet grades.
sideways if new primary producers scale faster than anticipated.
growth exceeds demand growth, rare-earth prices could soften — and
recycling economics could tighten with them.
rare-earth picture. If it scales as technology and policy currently
suggest it can, it adds a meaningful supplementary supply that smooths
the price trajectory and reinforces the diversification away from
more likely and rare-ea