Neodymium recycling in one sentence
The best neodymium recycling is magnet-to-magnet, using manufacturing scrap and easily extracted end-of-life magnets. Everything else is lower yield, dirtier, and slower to scale.
Neodymium recycling: where the real feed is (and why "urban mining" is mostly a magnet story)
Neodymium (Nd) recycling is not about recovering a pure metal from random electronics. It's about recovering NdFeB magnet material from a few waste streams that are actually collectible and concentrated. Even then, the biggest constraint is not "can we dissolve it," it's can we get clean magnet feedstock at scale, and turn it back into magnet-grade material economically.
1
The highest-quality feedstock: manufacturing scrap from NdFeB magnets
This is the "cleanest" recycling stream because it is:
- • concentrated (mostly magnet material),
- • predictable (known chemistry, known coatings),
- • already centralized (factories, not households).
In most recycling programs, this is the first stream that becomes economic because you do not pay the big collection and disassembly tax.
Why it matters: if you can secure a steady stream of magnet scrap, you can run short-loop processes that keep value in the magnet supply chain instead of collapsing everything into mixed oxides.
2
Short-loop recycling: hydrogen decrepitation and HPMS (magnet-to-magnet)
What it is
Hydrogen-based processes can break sintered NdFeB magnets into a friable powder without fully dissolving and re-separating the rare earths. This is the logic behind hydrogen decrepitation and the better-known Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap (HPMS) approach.
Why it's important
Short-loop recycling can skip a lot of the costly chemistry and separation steps that dominate rare earth refining. That is why EU projects and technical reviews focus on "direct to powder" routes for new magnets.
What it needs to work at scale
- • magnets that can be extracted and sorted (or at least processed without destroying yield)
- • control of contaminants (coatings, adhesives, other magnet types mixed in)
- • downstream magnet manufacturing capacity willing to qualify recycled powder
Practical reality: the process can work, but feedstock quality and sorting determine whether it becomes an industrial line or stays a niche solution.
3
End-of-life sources that actually matter
A) Hard disk drives (HDDs)
HDDs were one of the early "best targets" because magnets are relatively accessible in a consistent product design, and hydrogen-based extraction approaches have been demonstrated for pulling NdFeB magnets from HDD assemblies.
B) Electric motors and drivetrains (EVs, industrial motors)
This is the long-term volume story, but it's harder than it sounds:
- • motors are diverse
- • magnets are embedded and often glued
- • disassembly is labor-intensive unless design-for-recycling improves
Recent technical work keeps pushing combined pyro + hydro routes and other flowsheets for recovering Nd from end-of-life EV motor magnets, which tells you where the field is headed when scrap is mixed and dirty.
C) E-waste and mixed products
This is the most overhyped stream. Magnets are small, dispersed, and hard to separate. You can recycle Nd from mixed magnet scrap, but the cost is usually collection and separation, not chemistry.
4
Long-loop recycling: when you dissolve magnets back to rare earth oxides (or metal)
When feedstock is contaminated or mixed, recyclers often shift to hydrometallurgical (leaching + separation) and sometimes combined pyrometallurgical + hydrometallurgical routes. Reviews of rare earth magnet recycling cover these families of methods and their tradeoffs.
You also see alternative recovery concepts (for example, thermal processes that enable separation and recovery of Nd from magnet scrap), including HDD magnet-focused lab work.
The downside of long-loop approaches:
- • you often fall back into "rare earth refining economics" (reagents, waste, separation steps)
- • you may end up with oxides that still need to be converted into metal and alloy for magnets
So even long-loop recycling does not remove the midstream bottleneck. It just changes the feed.
5
Why neodymium recycling is still small today
Collection and disassembly are the real bottlenecks
If you cannot extract magnets cheaply, you do not have feedstock. That is why manufacturing scrap dominates early.
Sorting and contamination decide whether you can do short-loop
Short-loop magnet-to-magnet recycling works best with clean NdFeB streams. Mixed magnet types and coatings complicate processing.
The system still needs magnet-grade production
Recycled material has to re-enter the chain as something a magnet maker will qualify. That "qualification friction" is why scaling is slow.
The baseline is still "limited"
USGS summaries continue to describe rare earth recycling as limited, including from permanent magnets.
European industry-oriented reporting has also highlighted very low recovery rates for rare earth permanent magnet scrap in Europe, which shows how much of the problem is collection and system design, not chemistry.
6
What would make neodymium recycling scale faster
Design for disassembly in motors and devices
Products engineered for easy magnet extraction reduce collection costs and improve feedstock quality.
Standardized take-back and sorting for magnet-bearing components
Centralized collection infrastructure that segregates NdFeB magnets from other waste streams.
More magnet manufacturing outside single-country bottlenecks, so recycled feed has a place to go
Geographic diversification of magnet production creates local markets for recycled material.
Industrial short-loop lines that can accept real-world scrap and still hit magnet specs
Proven recycling technologies scaled to handle contaminated feedstock while maintaining quality standards.
There's a reason major supply chain efforts focus on magnets as a strategic node, not just on mining.