Resumen de Rare earths recycling and recovery: : the two sides of the industry
The rare earths supply risk and consequent panic buying that emerged in 2011 paved the way for sluggish demand, oversupply and low prices. In light of this, recycling rare earths from downstream products might appear an unnecessary economic burden. Antonio Torrisi, Reporter, investigates how this technology can integrate with new mining projects to promote future stability and sustainability in the rare earths market.
Three years later, the rare earths market looks very different. Exports from China have remained below the country's quotas for the last two years, on the back of depressed demand. In addition, the extremely fragmented Chinese rare earths industry, characterised by hundreds of small producers and a persisting illegal black market, meant that a huge oversupply of rare earths has contributed to lower prices, even below values seen in 2009.
While acknowledging the present absence of a potential risk of shortages in rare earths supply, the US DoD is sponsoring research in the reclamation of rare earths from downstream products at the Critical Material Institute (CMI), based at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa. The CMI recently received $120m of funding from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to develop projects to recycle rare earths from permanent magnets.
