Magnet Recycling: Mining Old EVs and Turbines
The global transition to green energy faces a critical bottleneck: the dominance of China in the rare earth magnet supply chain. With strict export controls on elements like terbium and dysprosium, the world is racing to find alternatives to avoid strategic vulnerability and meet urgent national security deadlines.
This documentary explores the rise of 'urban mining,' focusing on the recovery of neodymium-iron-boron magnets from end-of-life electric vehicles and decommissioned offshore wind turbines. We dive into the chemistry of hydrogen decrepitation and the emergence of new recycling facilities in the US, UK, and Germany.
Can recycling truly break the geopolitical bottleneck, or is it merely a supplement to traditional mining? We analyze the logistics, the market forecasts for 2036, and the race to secure the materials that power our future.
Educational documentary. Not financial or investment advice.
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Sources and credits
Primary sources
- CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), 'China's New Rare Earth and Magnet Restrictions Threaten U.S. Defense Supply Chains', 2025-2026 - the April 4, 2025 export controls on seven rare earths, the October 2025 expansion to five more, and China's ~91-92% refining share.
- IEA (International Energy Agency), 'Rare Earth Elements - Executive Summary', 2022 - China's ~60-69.5% share of global mined rare earth production.
- Nexus Wild, 'China Produces 94% of Global Rare-Earth Magnets', 2024-2026 - China's ~94% share of global sintered permanent magnet production.
- U.S. Department of Defense magnet-sourcing policy, reported via CSIS, 2025-2026 - the January 1, 2027 deadline to eliminate Chinese-origin magnets from defense systems.
- Recycling Today; Waste Dive, multiple 2024-2026 industry reports - the 1% end-of-life magnet recycling rate and the under-5% share of global rare earth demand supplied by recycling as of mid-2026.
- EU Critical Raw Materials Act, as summarized in industry analysis, 2024-2026 - the 25% recycling benchmark target by 2030.
- Stanford Large (Courses), 'Magnetic Materials in EV Motors', 2024-2025; The Volt Bridge, 'EV Traction Motor Magnets: Neodymium Rare Earth Technology Guide', 2024 - the 1-2 kg (1.5 kg benchmark) of NdPr alloy and 50-200 g of dysprosium per EV traction motor.
- IRENA, 'Critical Materials for the Energy Transition: Rare Earth Elements', 2022 - the ~500 kg of permanent magnets per MW of direct-drive offshore wind turbine capacity, about a third of it rare earth elements.
- 'Windfall' report backed by the Royal Academy of Engineering, summer 2026 - the estimate that decommissioned offshore wind turbine magnets could supply rare earth feedstock equivalent to ~1 million EV motors a year, with commercial-scale recovery not expected before 2038.
- IDTechEx (2026); Stanford Large (2025); materials science literature - the ~30% rare earth share by weight of a finished NdFeB magnet and its ~1.4 Tesla flux density holding to ~150-200°C.
- Cyclic Materials technical releases, 2026; Mkango/HyProMag documentation - the hydrogen decrepitation and vacuum induction melting recovery process, its 95-98% yield and ≥98% alloy purity.
- Mkango Resources, 'Official Opening of Recycling Plant in Birmingham', January 15, 2026; IET, Electrive, Mining.com, 2026 - the HyProMag Tyseley Energy Park, Birmingham plant: opening date, >400 kg/batch capacity, and 10.1 tonnes produced by October 2026.
- Cyclic Materials, 'Commercial-scale rare earth magnet recycling opens in Mesa, Arizona', September 9, 2026; Electrek; Recycling Today; Mining.com, September 2026 - the Mesa, Arizona plant's opening date, 25,000 metric tonnes/year capacity, and ~7,000 tonnes of feedstock on-site at opening.
- IDTechEx, 'Global Trends in Critical Material Recovery: 2025 and Beyond', 2026 - the <5% current share of global rare earth demand met by recycling and comparison against China's 500,000+ tonnes/year magnet output.
Not regulated financial advice.