Neodymium, the valuable rare mineral hidden in your old computer

A metal that is rarely recycled could be key to the operation of electric cars on a massive scale. What does the future of the neodymium market look like?

What can be done with an old hard drive, one of those that still rotate inside most computers, once its useful life ends?

If Allan Walton gets his way, some parts of those hard drives could soon boost caris electrics.

Walton is a professor at the University of Birmingham and director of the Hypromag firm, which extracts and recycles magnets from neodymium of used hard drives.

Neodymium is a metal of rare earth, which are essential chemical elements in many of today’s technologies, from smartphones to television screens.

Neodymium is used, among other things, to make magnets that run the motors of electric vehicles.

Professor Walton believes that in the next ten years his company could be recycling enough neodymium to meet a quarter of UK demand.

Currently, the UK imports almost all the neodymium it needs from China.

Ecological solution

Electric vehicles are considered greener than internal combustion engine cars, but producing rare earth magnets is far from environmentally friendly.

Hypromag Valuable rare earth metals can be found on old hard drives.

Although the processes required to refine rare earths use many of the same chemicals found in oven and cosmetic cleaners, their wastes can be destructive if not properly controlled.

In Bayan Obo, a mining area in Mongolia, these wastes have contributed to the formation of a vast toxic lake.

For steel and aluminum there are already large recycling programs. However, rare earth minerals used in phones, hard drives, and wind turbines generally they are not reused.

Four years ago, at the University of Birmingham, Professor Walton and his mentor, Professor Rex Harris, discovered that running hydrogenated gas through old hard drives turns magnets into dust that can be collect, repack and coat, to turn it into new magnets.

The project will not only offer a greener solution for the rare earth market, but the global demand for these minerals means there is a business opportunity.

A challenge for the industry

“There are no problems finding rare earths, the challenge is to process them into a useful material, like a magnet,” says Walton.

HypromagThe disk drive part is bathed in hydrogen, revealing the valuable neodymium. Using a hydrogen bath, the hard drive reveals the valuable neodymium powder.

This year Hypromag expects to announce a deal with British car company Bentley.

Hypromag has received a grant of more than $ 3.3 million from Innovate UK and $ 637,000 in investment from Mkango, an African mine.

Hypromag’s solution, however, will only satisfy a fraction of the growing demand rare earth, which analysts say will double by 2025.

Walton believes that if the UK acts now and creates a far-reaching rare earth recycling industry, it could become a world leader of this sector.

The opportunity is huge, with many emerging technologies like 5G, who need rare earths, in addition to the growing need for established technologies such as telephones, microprocessors and wind turbines.

However, the main reason why rare earths have been compared to the Petroleum It is the government policies that will drive the demand for electric vehicles.

After 2025, the Netherlands will not sell gasoline or diesel cars. The UK and France have pledged to meet this target by 2040. This year, China aims for 12% of cars sold in the country to produce zero emissions.

. The rise of electric cars will increase the demand for rare earth metals.

The rare earth market

China is the world leader in the production of rare earths and magnets made from them.

The country monopolizes the market because its companies can extract rare earths and process them locally. More than 70% of rare earth products are exported by China.

That control over the supply chain gives them a Lower costs impossible to match.

But China’s natural resources are not rich in heavier types of rare earths that are in greater demand, such as the neodymium used for car magnets.

China gets most of its neodymium from Burma and the United States, says Christopher Ecclestone, a mining strategist at the Hallgarten company.

Mountain Pass Mine in California sells 100% of its rare earths in concentrated form to China, and is partially owned by the Chinese firm Shenghe Resources, which has a 9.9% stake.

“The United States is one of the largest sources of rare earths in China and the Chinese are buying it for a very low price. That drives the Pentagon crazy. ”Ecclestone says.

. The Mountain Pass mine in California belongs in part to China.

What put China in control of the market was that rare earths were a by-product of the already established mines, says Ian Higgins, director of the Less Common Metals company, near Liverpool.

Other rare earth metals and their uses

• Neodymium: permanent magnets used in cars and wind turbines

• Erbium: fiber cables for broadband and high speed lasers

• Dysprosium: commercial lighting and nuclear reactors

• Cerium: glaze for glass, catalytic converters and oven cleaners

• Yttrium and Terbium: weapons that include laser pointers and cruise missiles

Less Common Metals is one of the few companies outside of China that produces and combines rare earth metals.

Higgins notes that Chinese mines are backed by government subsidies and unclear accounting practices.

While the environmental policy In China it has improved, the largest mines were built before implementation.

Less Common Metals Ian Higginses, from Less Common Metals, one of the few manufacturers of rare earth metal alloys outside of China.

“There is a lot of rare earth processing that is horrible and there’s also a lot of heavier rare earth smuggling, ”says Higgins.

However, he adds that the country is beginning to realize the environmental impact which causes its rare earth industry.

The future

The covid-19 pandemic has caused assembly lines to stop. But it has also spurred manufacturers using rare earths to question the global supply chain and its dependence from a single country.

The crisis has pushed governments and companies to “Locate resources“Explains Andrew Bloodworth, director of the British Geological Survey.

The United States, the United Kingdom and Europe are trying to build supply chains for rare earths outside of China.

. Old computers can hold a treasure for the industry of the future.

May 13 in the US a project was presented to the legislators with the aim of granting industry tax exemptions. US $ 50 million in funds were also earmarked for the creation of new mines in the country.

In the European Union, the Horizon 2020 fund has launched an initiative to build a supply chain in several European and Nordic countries, including the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, rare earths are an integral part of the industrial strategy government, according to Jeff Townsend, who this year created a lobbying firm to represent the interests of the industry.

“The government needs to understand and do much more than establish a great vision of an industrial strategy. Needs to get your hands dirty and provide the supply chain, “says Townsend.

“If we make the decision that we want to be better, then we have to try to be better, because that is the only way changerewe are society ”.

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