Highly energy-efficient process; first facility of its kind in Europe
Recycling is widely regarded as a key pillar in strengthening Europe’s supply of critical raw materials such as rare earth elements. However, recovery rates in this sector have remained low. Hypromag GmbH, a subsidiary of the Canadian resource development company Mkango Resources, aims to change that. This Tuesday, the company officially inaugurates its new recycling and manufacturing facility in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg, the first of its kind in Europe, according to the company. The plant will focus on recycling and producing sintered permanent magnets made from rare earth elements. It is based on a technology developed at the University of Birmingham that enables direct magnet-to-magnet recycling.
According to Hypromag, the process preserves the neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) alloy, allowing it to be reused after contaminants such as coatings and adhesives are removed. The material can then be processed into fully functional magnets again. The company emphasizes that the method is significantly more energy-efficient than conventional approaches—an important advantage given that high energy costs remain a major challenge for circular economy initiatives. A key issue, however, persists: securing sufficient feedstock. Large quantities of discarded electronic devices—especially smartphones—remain unused in households. According to the German industry association Bitkom, around 167 million such devices are currently sitting idle in Germany alone. With an average of 0.21 grams of neodymium per smartphone, as estimated by the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA) at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), this represents a substantial resource potential. Yet much of this material never re-enters the recycling loop. Moreover, smartphones are just one of many applications for high-performance magnets. Overall, recovery rates for these materials still fall far short of their theoretical potential.
