• FINANCE FORUM
RARE EARTHS RECYCLING
PROJECT RIGHT ON TIME
Late last year London and Toronto listed Mkango Resources announced that HyProMag and partners , European Metal Recycling ( EMR ) and University of Birmingham ( UoB ) have successfully completed the Rare-Earth Extraction from Audio Products ( REAP ) project . This is a significant announcement in the Rare Earth industry , where up to now , recycling in the circular economy has not been a major discussion point .
Mkango ’ s subsidiary , Maginito , holds a 25 % equity interest in HyProMag , with an option to increase its interest to 49 %.
Maginito has the first right to supply primary production , if required for blending with recycled production from HyProMag , as well as product offtake and marketing rights .
Rare earth magnets play a key role in clean energy technologies including electric vehicles and wind turbine generators , but they are also a key component in electronic devices including mobile phones , hard disk drives and loudspeakers .
Loudspeakers account for approximately 20 % of the current market for rare earth magnets , according to Adamas Intelligence , and therefore represent a significant opportunity for rare earth magnet recycling .
The UK has no domestic source of primary rare earths . The development of domestic sources of recycled rare earths via HPMS ( Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap ), a homegrown technology , is a significant opportunity for the UK to fast-track the development of sustainable and competitive rare earth magnet production .
The short loop recycling processes which are being scaled up by HyProMag will have a significant environmental benefit , requiring 88 % less energy compared to conventional production of magnets from primary sources .
According to William Dawes , CEO of Mkango , this demonstrates another potential source of both feedstock and route to market for recycled rare earth magnets .
“ Recycling is a key component of Mkango ’ s “ Mine , Refine , Recycle ” strategy via its strategic interest in HyProMag , and will become an
32 • African Mining • January 2022 increasingly important part of the rare earth supply chain in the UK , Europe and elsewhere .
“ HyProMag is well positioned to unlock that supply chain with access to the technology , expertise and network of partnerships to make it happen ,” says Dawes .
According to Nick Mann , Operations General Manager of HyProMag , REAP advances the novel techniques required to recycle rare earth magnets from audio products , which account for about 20 % of the NdFeB market each year .
“ HyProMag is very pleased to have successfully completed this ground-breaking project , which has identified a useful and accessible source of end-of-life magnets that can be collected , extracted and remanufactured on a commercially viable basis . As demand and therefore price of NdFeB magnets continues to rise , the need to capture waste material for recycling becomes imperative for economic as well as environmental reasons ,” says Mann .
Fundamental to the REAP Project is the patented HPMS process for extracting and demagnetising neodymium iron boron ( NdFeB ) alloy powders from magnets embedded in scrap and redundant equipment , originally developed within the Magnetic Materials Group at the UoB and subsequently licenced to HyProMag .
The other project partner , EMR , recycles metal at 150 locations around the world , and is the largest automotive recycling company in the UK .
EMR pre-processed automotive and flat screen TV loudspeaker scrap to provide a feed of scrap components containing NdFeB magnets to HyProMag . HyProMag used the HPMS process in conjunction with the UoB to extract the magnets as a demagnetised alloy powder , which was then used in the remanufacture of magnets . www . africanmining . co . za