Economic assessment and carbon footprint of recycling rare earths from magnets: Evaluation at lab scale paving the way toward industrialization

Project EXTRADE developed an innovative process for recycling rare earths (RE) from permanent magnets used in small applications. To assess the potential of further research from lab scale toward industrialization, this study performs economic and environmental evaluations. Because data are incomplete at current levels of process development, this study propagates uncertainty into the results. Results show that the EXTRADE process, as a complement to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) waste management system currently in operation in France, could be both economically profitable and beneficial in terms of climate change. However, at this stage of development the price of output products is a key determinant of the economic profitability while still particularly uncertain. Also, the EXTRADE process may offer a climate change benefit due to the substitution of recycled RE oxides for those produced from primary resources (80% chance to be superior to 990 tonnes CO₂‐eq over 5 years). The amount of the waste recycled is another key, uncertain parameter regarding both the environmental and economic benefits provided by the process.