![roblun1's tweet photo. 📣 Magnetic Materials, Recycling & the Race to Break China's Grip
🧲 The magnet inside your EV motor is the most geopolitically loaded object in modern manufacturing.
China controls 69% of REE mining, 85% of light REE refining, and 100% of heavy rare earth refining. In 2019 they made 92% of the world's rare earth permanent magnets.
That's the problem. Here's who's solving it. 🧵
⚡ WHY THE MAGNET MATTERS
Up to one-third of an EV motor magnet is rare earth elements. Permanent magnet motors are smaller, more efficient, deliver full torque instantly, require zero maintenance — and outperform every alternative. But every one of those magnets traces back through a supply chain that runs almost entirely through China. [https://t.co/BakuP4wgXC]
🏭 THE MOTOR INNOVATION FRONT
🔬 Less Neodymium via Cerium — Toyota developed a magnet replacing neodymium with cerium and lanthanum, cutting Nd use by 50%, eliminating the need for costly dysprosium and terbium, while maintaining coercivity at high temperatures through grain refinement to 1/10th the conventional size. Production motors in development.
📸 Toyota, motor using a Cerium magnet photo 3
🔬 Heavy REE-Free via Korea — KIMS researchers developed a two-step grain boundary diffusion process using only light REEs (praseodymium) — achieving commercial grades 45SH to 40UH equivalent to heavy REE-containing magnets, potentially eliminating dysprosium and terbium from EV motors entirely.
🔬 Iron Nitride (FeN) — Niron Magnetics (with GM as partner) is developing FeN magnets with remanence equivalent to NdFeB but no rare earths at all. Coercivity is 20% of NdFeB, requiring new rotor designs. Not ready for volume production — but coming.
🔬 REE-Free Motors — Ricardo UK built a 214 kW aluminium hairpin winding motor with >92% efficiency and zero rare earths, zero cobalt. Oil-cooled. Targeting light commercial vehicles.
📌 Note: REE-free designs will take years to reach volume vehicle platforms. The magnet supply chain problem is acute now — recycling is the fastest lever available.
♻️ THE RECYCLING FRONT — SHORT LOOP vs LONG LOOP
Two fundamentally different approaches are scaling simultaneously:
🇬🇧🇩🇪🇺🇸 HyProMag (Birmingham UK / Pforzheim Germany / Dallas-Fort Worth USA) uses HPMS — Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap. Expose scrap to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The NdFeB magnet decrepitates into powder. Coatings and adhesives separate mechanically. The powder goes straight back into new magnets — no acid, no separation, up to 90% energy savings vs primary production.
HyProMag has restored sintered rare-earth magnet manufacturing to the UK for the first time in 25 years, with Tyseley Energy Park officially opened by the UK Minister for Industry in January 2026. The Pforzheim, Germany plant — HyProMag GmbH — was officially opened by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 28 April 2026, with initial capacity of 100tpa scaling to 350tpa on multiple shifts.
Over 100 different recycled powder blends created. Over 9 tonnes of NdFeB produced and 7+ tonnes shipped to customers at Tyseley. Samples supplied to over 20 potential customers for qualification including motors, medical devices, and audio products. Confirmed customer collaboration: Siemens AG.
🚗 REACT-UK — the flagship project: a £6.5M, three-year DRIVE35-funded programme announced April 2026, led by HyProMag, with partners Mkango Rare Earths UK, EMR Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Less Common Metals, and the University of Birmingham — establishing a fully circular UK supply chain from end-of-life EV motors back to production-grade automotive magnets.
📸 e-bike motor recycled magnet photo
🟠 LONG LOOP — Scrap to Separated High-Purity REO, Dissolve. Separate. Rebuild from atoms up.
🇬🇧🇦🇺 Ionic Technologies / IonicRE (IXR) — Belfast facility takes spent or swarf magnets, crushes to powder, acid-dissolves the REEs, then separates individual elements — Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb — to >99.9% purity REOs. Feedstock-agnostic. Working with Ford and LCM on a UK circular supply chain. £12M UK Government grant secured.
📸 IonicRE Ford rotor recycled magnet photo
🚨 JUST ANNOUNCED — The hidden dependency solved:
Until now, every Western long-loop refiner — including IonicRE — relied on oxalic acid for the precipitation step that converts dissolved REEs into solid oxides. China produces the oxalic acid. That's a dependency inside the independence.
On May 20, 2026, IonicRE and Nth Cycle (Burlington, MA) signed a Joint Development & Licensing Agreement to replace that precipitation step entirely.
Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology uses electricity — not oxalic acid — to produce the precipitating chemistry in a closed loop, regenerating hydrochloric acid for continuous reuse. Integration into IonicRE's Belfast facility begins Q4 2026.
"Oxalic acid represents approximately ~50% of our benchmark carbon footprint" — Tim Harrison, CEO IonicRE
The result: lower OPEX, lower carbon, zero Chinese chemical dependency in the refining step. The most resilient long-loop REE recycling flowsheet ever built.
🟢 MEDIUM LOOP — The bridge
HyProMag + LCM demonstrated a medium loop: HPMS powder → LCM remelts and purifies alloy → back to magnets. Compositional control improves. Higher grades unlocked. First demonstration: magnets for magnetic filtration systems at ADEY Innovation. Commercially viable.
🇨🇦 CYCLIC MATERIALS — The North American hub
MagCycle disassembly + REEPure hydrometallurgical processing. $25M Kingston Ontario Centre of Excellence — 500tpa magnet-rich feedstock → mixed REO (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb). Arizona spoke feeding scrap from EVs, wind turbines, data centre hard drives. Operations began Q1 2026. Key offtake partner: Solvay (La Rochelle, France).
🔮 ON THE HORIZON — REE-free magnets
Machine learning is being used to find materials replacing both light and heavy REEs. 16 projects running under the UK's Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains programme. LCM + Materials Nexus working to cut heavy REE content without performance loss. Still years from vehicle-scale deployment — but the direction of travel is clear.
Today less than 1% of REEs are recycled. The firms above — HyProMag, IonicRE/Nth Cycle, Cyclic Materials — are building the infrastructure to change that. Short loop, long loop, medium loop. Each solves a different piece of the same problem: get Western EV magnets off Chinese supply chains before the next export control tightens the screw.
📖 Full article: https://t.co/0DiAz6ruZL
#RareEarths #NdFeB #MagnetRecycling #CriticalMinerals #EVMotors #ShortLoop #LongLoop #HyProMag #IonicRareEarths #IXR #NthCycle #CyclicMaterials #CircularEconomy #Neodymium #Dysprosium #Cerium #REEfree #SupplyChainResilience #ChinaExportControls #GreenTransition #EVs #CleanEnergy #HPMS #ElectroExtraction #LCM #Solvay #Ford](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HK144TkbIAA7SC-.jpg)
![roblun1's tweet photo. 📣 Magnetic Materials, Recycling & the Race to Break China's Grip
🧲 The magnet inside your EV motor is the most geopolitically loaded object in modern manufacturing.
China controls 69% of REE mining, 85% of light REE refining, and 100% of heavy rare earth refining. In 2019 they made 92% of the world's rare earth permanent magnets.
That's the problem. Here's who's solving it. 🧵
⚡ WHY THE MAGNET MATTERS
Up to one-third of an EV motor magnet is rare earth elements. Permanent magnet motors are smaller, more efficient, deliver full torque instantly, require zero maintenance — and outperform every alternative. But every one of those magnets traces back through a supply chain that runs almost entirely through China. [https://t.co/BakuP4wgXC]
🏭 THE MOTOR INNOVATION FRONT
🔬 Less Neodymium via Cerium — Toyota developed a magnet replacing neodymium with cerium and lanthanum, cutting Nd use by 50%, eliminating the need for costly dysprosium and terbium, while maintaining coercivity at high temperatures through grain refinement to 1/10th the conventional size. Production motors in development.
📸 Toyota, motor using a Cerium magnet photo 3
🔬 Heavy REE-Free via Korea — KIMS researchers developed a two-step grain boundary diffusion process using only light REEs (praseodymium) — achieving commercial grades 45SH to 40UH equivalent to heavy REE-containing magnets, potentially eliminating dysprosium and terbium from EV motors entirely.
🔬 Iron Nitride (FeN) — Niron Magnetics (with GM as partner) is developing FeN magnets with remanence equivalent to NdFeB but no rare earths at all. Coercivity is 20% of NdFeB, requiring new rotor designs. Not ready for volume production — but coming.
🔬 REE-Free Motors — Ricardo UK built a 214 kW aluminium hairpin winding motor with >92% efficiency and zero rare earths, zero cobalt. Oil-cooled. Targeting light commercial vehicles.
📌 Note: REE-free designs will take years to reach volume vehicle platforms. The magnet supply chain problem is acute now — recycling is the fastest lever available.
♻️ THE RECYCLING FRONT — SHORT LOOP vs LONG LOOP
Two fundamentally different approaches are scaling simultaneously:
🇬🇧🇩🇪🇺🇸 HyProMag (Birmingham UK / Pforzheim Germany / Dallas-Fort Worth USA) uses HPMS — Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap. Expose scrap to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The NdFeB magnet decrepitates into powder. Coatings and adhesives separate mechanically. The powder goes straight back into new magnets — no acid, no separation, up to 90% energy savings vs primary production.
HyProMag has restored sintered rare-earth magnet manufacturing to the UK for the first time in 25 years, with Tyseley Energy Park officially opened by the UK Minister for Industry in January 2026. The Pforzheim, Germany plant — HyProMag GmbH — was officially opened by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 28 April 2026, with initial capacity of 100tpa scaling to 350tpa on multiple shifts.
Over 100 different recycled powder blends created. Over 9 tonnes of NdFeB produced and 7+ tonnes shipped to customers at Tyseley. Samples supplied to over 20 potential customers for qualification including motors, medical devices, and audio products. Confirmed customer collaboration: Siemens AG.
🚗 REACT-UK — the flagship project: a £6.5M, three-year DRIVE35-funded programme announced April 2026, led by HyProMag, with partners Mkango Rare Earths UK, EMR Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Less Common Metals, and the University of Birmingham — establishing a fully circular UK supply chain from end-of-life EV motors back to production-grade automotive magnets.
📸 e-bike motor recycled magnet photo
🟠 LONG LOOP — Scrap to Separated High-Purity REO, Dissolve. Separate. Rebuild from atoms up.
🇬🇧🇦🇺 Ionic Technologies / IonicRE (IXR) — Belfast facility takes spent or swarf magnets, crushes to powder, acid-dissolves the REEs, then separates individual elements — Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb — to >99.9% purity REOs. Feedstock-agnostic. Working with Ford and LCM on a UK circular supply chain. £12M UK Government grant secured.
📸 IonicRE Ford rotor recycled magnet photo
🚨 JUST ANNOUNCED — The hidden dependency solved:
Until now, every Western long-loop refiner — including IonicRE — relied on oxalic acid for the precipitation step that converts dissolved REEs into solid oxides. China produces the oxalic acid. That's a dependency inside the independence.
On May 20, 2026, IonicRE and Nth Cycle (Burlington, MA) signed a Joint Development & Licensing Agreement to replace that precipitation step entirely.
Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology uses electricity — not oxalic acid — to produce the precipitating chemistry in a closed loop, regenerating hydrochloric acid for continuous reuse. Integration into IonicRE's Belfast facility begins Q4 2026.
"Oxalic acid represents approximately ~50% of our benchmark carbon footprint" — Tim Harrison, CEO IonicRE
The result: lower OPEX, lower carbon, zero Chinese chemical dependency in the refining step. The most resilient long-loop REE recycling flowsheet ever built.
🟢 MEDIUM LOOP — The bridge
HyProMag + LCM demonstrated a medium loop: HPMS powder → LCM remelts and purifies alloy → back to magnets. Compositional control improves. Higher grades unlocked. First demonstration: magnets for magnetic filtration systems at ADEY Innovation. Commercially viable.
🇨🇦 CYCLIC MATERIALS — The North American hub
MagCycle disassembly + REEPure hydrometallurgical processing. $25M Kingston Ontario Centre of Excellence — 500tpa magnet-rich feedstock → mixed REO (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb). Arizona spoke feeding scrap from EVs, wind turbines, data centre hard drives. Operations began Q1 2026. Key offtake partner: Solvay (La Rochelle, France).
🔮 ON THE HORIZON — REE-free magnets
Machine learning is being used to find materials replacing both light and heavy REEs. 16 projects running under the UK's Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains programme. LCM + Materials Nexus working to cut heavy REE content without performance loss. Still years from vehicle-scale deployment — but the direction of travel is clear.
Today less than 1% of REEs are recycled. The firms above — HyProMag, IonicRE/Nth Cycle, Cyclic Materials — are building the infrastructure to change that. Short loop, long loop, medium loop. Each solves a different piece of the same problem: get Western EV magnets off Chinese supply chains before the next export control tightens the screw.
📖 Full article: https://t.co/0DiAz6ruZL
#RareEarths #NdFeB #MagnetRecycling #CriticalMinerals #EVMotors #ShortLoop #LongLoop #HyProMag #IonicRareEarths #IXR #NthCycle #CyclicMaterials #CircularEconomy #Neodymium #Dysprosium #Cerium #REEfree #SupplyChainResilience #ChinaExportControls #GreenTransition #EVs #CleanEnergy #HPMS #ElectroExtraction #LCM #Solvay #Ford](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HK14aF7aMAEbAkt.jpg)
![roblun1's tweet photo. 📣 Magnetic Materials, Recycling & the Race to Break China's Grip
🧲 The magnet inside your EV motor is the most geopolitically loaded object in modern manufacturing.
China controls 69% of REE mining, 85% of light REE refining, and 100% of heavy rare earth refining. In 2019 they made 92% of the world's rare earth permanent magnets.
That's the problem. Here's who's solving it. 🧵
⚡ WHY THE MAGNET MATTERS
Up to one-third of an EV motor magnet is rare earth elements. Permanent magnet motors are smaller, more efficient, deliver full torque instantly, require zero maintenance — and outperform every alternative. But every one of those magnets traces back through a supply chain that runs almost entirely through China. [https://t.co/BakuP4wgXC]
🏭 THE MOTOR INNOVATION FRONT
🔬 Less Neodymium via Cerium — Toyota developed a magnet replacing neodymium with cerium and lanthanum, cutting Nd use by 50%, eliminating the need for costly dysprosium and terbium, while maintaining coercivity at high temperatures through grain refinement to 1/10th the conventional size. Production motors in development.
📸 Toyota, motor using a Cerium magnet photo 3
🔬 Heavy REE-Free via Korea — KIMS researchers developed a two-step grain boundary diffusion process using only light REEs (praseodymium) — achieving commercial grades 45SH to 40UH equivalent to heavy REE-containing magnets, potentially eliminating dysprosium and terbium from EV motors entirely.
🔬 Iron Nitride (FeN) — Niron Magnetics (with GM as partner) is developing FeN magnets with remanence equivalent to NdFeB but no rare earths at all. Coercivity is 20% of NdFeB, requiring new rotor designs. Not ready for volume production — but coming.
🔬 REE-Free Motors — Ricardo UK built a 214 kW aluminium hairpin winding motor with >92% efficiency and zero rare earths, zero cobalt. Oil-cooled. Targeting light commercial vehicles.
📌 Note: REE-free designs will take years to reach volume vehicle platforms. The magnet supply chain problem is acute now — recycling is the fastest lever available.
♻️ THE RECYCLING FRONT — SHORT LOOP vs LONG LOOP
Two fundamentally different approaches are scaling simultaneously:
🇬🇧🇩🇪🇺🇸 HyProMag (Birmingham UK / Pforzheim Germany / Dallas-Fort Worth USA) uses HPMS — Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap. Expose scrap to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The NdFeB magnet decrepitates into powder. Coatings and adhesives separate mechanically. The powder goes straight back into new magnets — no acid, no separation, up to 90% energy savings vs primary production.
HyProMag has restored sintered rare-earth magnet manufacturing to the UK for the first time in 25 years, with Tyseley Energy Park officially opened by the UK Minister for Industry in January 2026. The Pforzheim, Germany plant — HyProMag GmbH — was officially opened by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 28 April 2026, with initial capacity of 100tpa scaling to 350tpa on multiple shifts.
Over 100 different recycled powder blends created. Over 9 tonnes of NdFeB produced and 7+ tonnes shipped to customers at Tyseley. Samples supplied to over 20 potential customers for qualification including motors, medical devices, and audio products. Confirmed customer collaboration: Siemens AG.
🚗 REACT-UK — the flagship project: a £6.5M, three-year DRIVE35-funded programme announced April 2026, led by HyProMag, with partners Mkango Rare Earths UK, EMR Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Less Common Metals, and the University of Birmingham — establishing a fully circular UK supply chain from end-of-life EV motors back to production-grade automotive magnets.
📸 e-bike motor recycled magnet photo
🟠 LONG LOOP — Scrap to Separated High-Purity REO, Dissolve. Separate. Rebuild from atoms up.
🇬🇧🇦🇺 Ionic Technologies / IonicRE (IXR) — Belfast facility takes spent or swarf magnets, crushes to powder, acid-dissolves the REEs, then separates individual elements — Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb — to >99.9% purity REOs. Feedstock-agnostic. Working with Ford and LCM on a UK circular supply chain. £12M UK Government grant secured.
📸 IonicRE Ford rotor recycled magnet photo
🚨 JUST ANNOUNCED — The hidden dependency solved:
Until now, every Western long-loop refiner — including IonicRE — relied on oxalic acid for the precipitation step that converts dissolved REEs into solid oxides. China produces the oxalic acid. That's a dependency inside the independence.
On May 20, 2026, IonicRE and Nth Cycle (Burlington, MA) signed a Joint Development & Licensing Agreement to replace that precipitation step entirely.
Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology uses electricity — not oxalic acid — to produce the precipitating chemistry in a closed loop, regenerating hydrochloric acid for continuous reuse. Integration into IonicRE's Belfast facility begins Q4 2026.
"Oxalic acid represents approximately ~50% of our benchmark carbon footprint" — Tim Harrison, CEO IonicRE
The result: lower OPEX, lower carbon, zero Chinese chemical dependency in the refining step. The most resilient long-loop REE recycling flowsheet ever built.
🟢 MEDIUM LOOP — The bridge
HyProMag + LCM demonstrated a medium loop: HPMS powder → LCM remelts and purifies alloy → back to magnets. Compositional control improves. Higher grades unlocked. First demonstration: magnets for magnetic filtration systems at ADEY Innovation. Commercially viable.
🇨🇦 CYCLIC MATERIALS — The North American hub
MagCycle disassembly + REEPure hydrometallurgical processing. $25M Kingston Ontario Centre of Excellence — 500tpa magnet-rich feedstock → mixed REO (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb). Arizona spoke feeding scrap from EVs, wind turbines, data centre hard drives. Operations began Q1 2026. Key offtake partner: Solvay (La Rochelle, France).
🔮 ON THE HORIZON — REE-free magnets
Machine learning is being used to find materials replacing both light and heavy REEs. 16 projects running under the UK's Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains programme. LCM + Materials Nexus working to cut heavy REE content without performance loss. Still years from vehicle-scale deployment — but the direction of travel is clear.
Today less than 1% of REEs are recycled. The firms above — HyProMag, IonicRE/Nth Cycle, Cyclic Materials — are building the infrastructure to change that. Short loop, long loop, medium loop. Each solves a different piece of the same problem: get Western EV magnets off Chinese supply chains before the next export control tightens the screw.
📖 Full article: https://t.co/0DiAz6ruZL
#RareEarths #NdFeB #MagnetRecycling #CriticalMinerals #EVMotors #ShortLoop #LongLoop #HyProMag #IonicRareEarths #IXR #NthCycle #CyclicMaterials #CircularEconomy #Neodymium #Dysprosium #Cerium #REEfree #SupplyChainResilience #ChinaExportControls #GreenTransition #EVs #CleanEnergy #HPMS #ElectroExtraction #LCM #Solvay #Ford](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HK14F2saUAAUvy8.jpg)
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📣 Magnetic Materials, Recycling & the Race to Break China's Grip
🧲 The magnet inside your EV motor is the most geopolitically loaded object in modern manufacturing.
China controls 69% of REE mining, 85% of light REE refining, and 100% of heavy rare earth refining. In 2019 they made 92% of the world's rare earth permanent magnets.
That's the problem. Here's who's solving it. 🧵
⚡ WHY THE MAGNET MATTERS
Up to one-third of an EV motor magnet is rare earth elements. Permanent magnet motors are smaller, more efficient, deliver full torque instantly, require zero maintenance — and outperform every alternative. But every one of those magnets traces back through a supply chain that runs almost entirely through China. [https://t.co/BakuP4wgXC]
🏭 THE MOTOR INNOVATION FRONT
🔬 Less Neodymium via Cerium — Toyota developed a magnet replacing neodymium with cerium and lanthanum, cutting Nd use by 50%, eliminating the need for costly dysprosium and terbium, while maintaining coercivity at high temperatures through grain refinement to 1/10th the conventional size. Production motors in development.
📸 Toyota, motor using a Cerium magnet photo 3
🔬 Heavy REE-Free via Korea — KIMS researchers developed a two-step grain boundary diffusion process using only light REEs (praseodymium) — achieving commercial grades 45SH to 40UH equivalent to heavy REE-containing magnets, potentially eliminating dysprosium and terbium from EV motors entirely.
🔬 Iron Nitride (FeN) — Niron Magnetics (with GM as partner) is developing FeN magnets with remanence equivalent to NdFeB but no rare earths at all. Coercivity is 20% of NdFeB, requiring new rotor designs. Not ready for volume production — but coming.
🔬 REE-Free Motors — Ricardo UK built a 214 kW aluminium hairpin winding motor with >92% efficiency and zero rare earths, zero cobalt. Oil-cooled. Targeting light commercial vehicles.
📌 Note: REE-free designs will take years to reach volume vehicle platforms. The magnet supply chain problem is acute now — recycling is the fastest lever available.
♻️ THE RECYCLING FRONT — SHORT LOOP vs LONG LOOP
Two fundamentally different approaches are scaling simultaneously:
🇬🇧🇩🇪🇺🇸 HyProMag (Birmingham UK / Pforzheim Germany / Dallas-Fort Worth USA) uses HPMS — Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap. Expose scrap to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The NdFeB magnet decrepitates into powder. Coatings and adhesives separate mechanically. The powder goes straight back into new magnets — no acid, no separation, up to 90% energy savings vs primary production.
HyProMag has restored sintered rare-earth magnet manufacturing to the UK for the first time in 25 years, with Tyseley Energy Park officially opened by the UK Minister for Industry in January 2026. The Pforzheim, Germany plant — HyProMag GmbH — was officially opened by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 28 April 2026, with initial capacity of 100tpa scaling to 350tpa on multiple shifts.
Over 100 different recycled powder blends created. Over 9 tonnes of NdFeB produced and 7+ tonnes shipped to customers at Tyseley. Samples supplied to over 20 potential customers for qualification including motors, medical devices, and audio products. Confirmed customer collaboration: Siemens AG.
🚗 REACT-UK — the flagship project: a £6.5M, three-year DRIVE35-funded programme announced April 2026, led by HyProMag, with partners Mkango Rare Earths UK, EMR Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Less Common Metals, and the University of Birmingham — establishing a fully circular UK supply chain from end-of-life EV motors back to production-grade automotive magnets.
📸 e-bike motor recycled magnet photo
🟠 LONG LOOP — Scrap to Separated High-Purity REO, Dissolve. Separate. Rebuild from atoms up.
🇬🇧🇦🇺 Ionic Technologies / IonicRE (IXR) — Belfast facility takes spent or swarf magnets, crushes to powder, acid-dissolves the REEs, then separates individual elements — Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb — to >99.9% purity REOs. Feedstock-agnostic. Working with Ford and LCM on a UK circular supply chain. £12M UK Government grant secured.
📸 IonicRE Ford rotor recycled magnet photo
🚨 JUST ANNOUNCED — The hidden dependency solved:
Until now, every Western long-loop refiner — including IonicRE — relied on oxalic acid for the precipitation step that converts dissolved REEs into solid oxides. China produces the oxalic acid. That's a dependency inside the independence.
On May 20, 2026, IonicRE and Nth Cycle (Burlington, MA) signed a Joint Development & Licensing Agreement to replace that precipitation step entirely.
Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology uses electricity — not oxalic acid — to produce the precipitating chemistry in a closed loop, regenerating hydrochloric acid for continuous reuse. Integration into IonicRE's Belfast facility begins Q4 2026.
"Oxalic acid represents approximately ~50% of our benchmark carbon footprint" — Tim Harrison, CEO IonicRE
The result: lower OPEX, lower carbon, zero Chinese chemical dependency in the refining step. The most resilient long-loop REE recycling flowsheet ever built.
🟢 MEDIUM LOOP — The bridge
HyProMag + LCM demonstrated a medium loop: HPMS powder → LCM remelts and purifies alloy → back to magnets. Compositional control improves. Higher grades unlocked. First demonstration: magnets for magnetic filtration systems at ADEY Innovation. Commercially viable.
🇨🇦 CYCLIC MATERIALS — The North American hub
MagCycle disassembly + REEPure hydrometallurgical processing. $25M Kingston Ontario Centre of Excellence — 500tpa magnet-rich feedstock → mixed REO (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb). Arizona spoke feeding scrap from EVs, wind turbines, data centre hard drives. Operations began Q1 2026. Key offtake partner: Solvay (La Rochelle, France).
🔮 ON THE HORIZON — REE-free magnets
Machine learning is being used to find materials replacing both light and heavy REEs. 16 projects running under the UK's Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains programme. LCM + Materials Nexus working to cut heavy REE content without performance loss. Still years from vehicle-scale deployment — but the direction of travel is clear.
Today less than 1% of REEs are recycled. The firms above — HyProMag, IonicRE/Nth Cycle, Cyclic Materials — are building the infrastructure to change that. Short loop, long loop, medium loop. Each solves a different piece of the same problem: get Western EV magnets off Chinese supply chains before the next export control tightens the screw.
📖 Full article: https://t.co/0DiAz6ruZL
#RareEarths #NdFeB #MagnetRecycling #CriticalMinerals #EVMotors #ShortLoop #LongLoop #HyProMag #IonicRareEarths #IXR #NthCycle #CyclicMaterials #CircularEconomy #Neodymium #Dysprosium #Cerium #REEfree #SupplyChainResilience #ChinaExportControls #GreenTransition #EVs #CleanEnergy #HPMS #ElectroExtraction #LCM #Solvay #Ford
![roblun1's tweet photo. 📣 Magnetic Materials, Recycling & the Race to Break China's Grip
🧲 The magnet inside your EV motor is the most geopolitically loaded object in modern manufacturing.
China controls 69% of REE mining, 85% of light REE refining, and 100% of heavy rare earth refining. In 2019 they made 92% of the world's rare earth permanent magnets.
That's the problem. Here's who's solving it. 🧵
⚡ WHY THE MAGNET MATTERS
Up to one-third of an EV motor magnet is rare earth elements. Permanent magnet motors are smaller, more efficient, deliver full torque instantly, require zero maintenance — and outperform every alternative. But every one of those magnets traces back through a supply chain that runs almost entirely through China. [https://t.co/BakuP4wgXC]
🏭 THE MOTOR INNOVATION FRONT
🔬 Less Neodymium via Cerium — Toyota developed a magnet replacing neodymium with cerium and lanthanum, cutting Nd use by 50%, eliminating the need for costly dysprosium and terbium, while maintaining coercivity at high temperatures through grain refinement to 1/10th the conventional size. Production motors in development.
📸 Toyota, motor using a Cerium magnet photo 3
🔬 Heavy REE-Free via Korea — KIMS researchers developed a two-step grain boundary diffusion process using only light REEs (praseodymium) — achieving commercial grades 45SH to 40UH equivalent to heavy REE-containing magnets, potentially eliminating dysprosium and terbium from EV motors entirely.
🔬 Iron Nitride (FeN) — Niron Magnetics (with GM as partner) is developing FeN magnets with remanence equivalent to NdFeB but no rare earths at all. Coercivity is 20% of NdFeB, requiring new rotor designs. Not ready for volume production — but coming.
🔬 REE-Free Motors — Ricardo UK built a 214 kW aluminium hairpin winding motor with >92% efficiency and zero rare earths, zero cobalt. Oil-cooled. Targeting light commercial vehicles.
📌 Note: REE-free designs will take years to reach volume vehicle platforms. The magnet supply chain problem is acute now — recycling is the fastest lever available.
♻️ THE RECYCLING FRONT — SHORT LOOP vs LONG LOOP
Two fundamentally different approaches are scaling simultaneously:
🇬🇧🇩🇪🇺🇸 HyProMag (Birmingham UK / Pforzheim Germany / Dallas-Fort Worth USA) uses HPMS — Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap. Expose scrap to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The NdFeB magnet decrepitates into powder. Coatings and adhesives separate mechanically. The powder goes straight back into new magnets — no acid, no separation, up to 90% energy savings vs primary production.
HyProMag has restored sintered rare-earth magnet manufacturing to the UK for the first time in 25 years, with Tyseley Energy Park officially opened by the UK Minister for Industry in January 2026. The Pforzheim, Germany plant — HyProMag GmbH — was officially opened by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 28 April 2026, with initial capacity of 100tpa scaling to 350tpa on multiple shifts.
Over 100 different recycled powder blends created. Over 9 tonnes of NdFeB produced and 7+ tonnes shipped to customers at Tyseley. Samples supplied to over 20 potential customers for qualification including motors, medical devices, and audio products. Confirmed customer collaboration: Siemens AG.
🚗 REACT-UK — the flagship project: a £6.5M, three-year DRIVE35-funded programme announced April 2026, led by HyProMag, with partners Mkango Rare Earths UK, EMR Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Less Common Metals, and the University of Birmingham — establishing a fully circular UK supply chain from end-of-life EV motors back to production-grade automotive magnets.
📸 e-bike motor recycled magnet photo
🟠 LONG LOOP — Scrap to Separated High-Purity REO, Dissolve. Separate. Rebuild from atoms up.
🇬🇧🇦🇺 Ionic Technologies / IonicRE (IXR) — Belfast facility takes spent or swarf magnets, crushes to powder, acid-dissolves the REEs, then separates individual elements — Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb — to >99.9% purity REOs. Feedstock-agnostic. Working with Ford and LCM on a UK circular supply chain. £12M UK Government grant secured.
📸 IonicRE Ford rotor recycled magnet photo
🚨 JUST ANNOUNCED — The hidden dependency solved:
Until now, every Western long-loop refiner — including IonicRE — relied on oxalic acid for the precipitation step that converts dissolved REEs into solid oxides. China produces the oxalic acid. That's a dependency inside the independence.
On May 20, 2026, IonicRE and Nth Cycle (Burlington, MA) signed a Joint Development & Licensing Agreement to replace that precipitation step entirely.
Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology uses electricity — not oxalic acid — to produce the precipitating chemistry in a closed loop, regenerating hydrochloric acid for continuous reuse. Integration into IonicRE's Belfast facility begins Q4 2026.
"Oxalic acid represents approximately ~50% of our benchmark carbon footprint" — Tim Harrison, CEO IonicRE
The result: lower OPEX, lower carbon, zero Chinese chemical dependency in the refining step. The most resilient long-loop REE recycling flowsheet ever built.
🟢 MEDIUM LOOP — The bridge
HyProMag + LCM demonstrated a medium loop: HPMS powder → LCM remelts and purifies alloy → back to magnets. Compositional control improves. Higher grades unlocked. First demonstration: magnets for magnetic filtration systems at ADEY Innovation. Commercially viable.
🇨🇦 CYCLIC MATERIALS — The North American hub
MagCycle disassembly + REEPure hydrometallurgical processing. $25M Kingston Ontario Centre of Excellence — 500tpa magnet-rich feedstock → mixed REO (Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb). Arizona spoke feeding scrap from EVs, wind turbines, data centre hard drives. Operations began Q1 2026. Key offtake partner: Solvay (La Rochelle, France).
🔮 ON THE HORIZON — REE-free magnets
Machine learning is being used to find materials replacing both light and heavy REEs. 16 projects running under the UK's Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains programme. LCM + Materials Nexus working to cut heavy REE content without performance loss. Still years from vehicle-scale deployment — but the direction of travel is clear.
Today less than 1% of REEs are recycled. The firms above — HyProMag, IonicRE/Nth Cycle, Cyclic Materials — are building the infrastructure to change that. Short loop, long loop, medium loop. Each solves a different piece of the same problem: get Western EV magnets off Chinese supply chains before the next export control tightens the screw.
📖 Full article: https://t.co/0DiAz6ruZL
#RareEarths #NdFeB #MagnetRecycling #CriticalMinerals #EVMotors #ShortLoop #LongLoop #HyProMag #IonicRareEarths #IXR #NthCycle #CyclicMaterials #CircularEconomy #Neodymium #Dysprosium #Cerium #REEfree #SupplyChainResilience #ChinaExportControls #GreenTransition #EVs #CleanEnergy #HPMS #ElectroExtraction #LCM #Solvay #Ford](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HK15HcgasAAlG3c.jpg)
Congratulations @elonmusk on the @SpaceX IPO and being the first trillionaire. Now you can focus on merging @Tesla for your all in one company. To secure materials for all your satellites, cars and robots it would be a great fit to acquire @AvzMinerals for cheap $5b to $10b $avz
@KiengeKki @MinMinesRDC @LouisWKabamba @ChrisKitungwa @SuminwaJudith @KoBold_Metals @US_SrAdvisorAF @Manonolithium C’est pourquoi #Zijin a dû le voler avec l’aide de fonctionnaires corrompus du clan @cominiere – le monde entier sait que $AVZ a prouvé l’existence de cette ressource, y compris un DFS et plus encore.
Technology as an enabler for Western critical minerals refining: Interview with Nth Cycle’s Megan O’Connor
Megan O'Connor, co-founder and CEO, Nth Cycle; Matthew Bird, Senior Editor, Benchmark
Matthew Bird speaks with Megan O’Connor, CEO of Nth Cycle, about critical minerals refining technology and its role in enabling domestic supply chains. The conversation covers rare earths, recycling, partnerships and policy, focusing on how innovation can overcome cost, permitting and chemical dependency challenges in the US and other Western markets.
⚗️⚡ The hidden dependency nobody talks about — and the partnership that just killed it.
Oxalic acid.
It's the chemical used by virtually every rare earth recycler and refiner in the West to precipitate rare earth oxides from solution — the final step that converts a dissolved REE stream into a physical solid oxide powder.
And right now? It is almost entirely made in China.
Every Western rare earth recycler onshoring supply chains away from Beijing is — without realising it — still dependent on China for one of the most critical reagents in their own flowsheet.
That just changed. 🔑
🤝 Nth Cycle × Ionic Rare Earths — Joint Development & Licensing Agreement
Nth Cycle (CEO: Megan O'Connor) and Ionic Rare Earths Limited (ASX: IXR, MD: Tim Harrison) have signed a Joint Development and Licensing Agreement to integrate Nth Cycle's proprietary electro-extraction technology directly into Ionic RE's flowsheet — replacing oxalic acid in the precipitation step entirely.
This is not an incremental improvement.
It is the elimination of a Chinese supply chain dependency that sits inside the Western supply chain independence story itself.
🔬 What is Nth Cycle's electro-extraction technology?
Rather than purchasing oxalic acid as a reagent input, Nth Cycle's platform uses electricity to produce the chemical agents on-site — directly from the process stream itself.
⚡ Generates precipitation chemicals electrochemically — no external reagent purchase
🔄 Regenerates hydrochloric acid for continuous reuse in the dissolution circuit
🧪 Removes the need for oxalic acid entirely from the flowsheet
🌍 Eliminates a key hidden Chinese input dependency
💰 Reduces OPEX — less reagent purchasing, less waste treatment
🌱 Reduces carbon footprint — less chemical manufacturing energy embedded in the process
Megan O'Connor's description at Benchmark Minerals is precise: "Technology as an enabler for Western critical minerals refining." This is exactly what that means in practice — not just building separation capacity in the West, but making that capacity truly independent by removing embedded Chinese inputs from inside the flowsheet.
🇬🇧🇺🇸 Why Ionic RE is the natural first partner for this:
Ionic RE's MAIL (Multifunctional Amide Ionic Liquid) platform already removes Chinese solvent extraction chemistry from the separation step — no P507, no saponification, no volatile organic solvents, closed-loop ionic liquid recycling, >99.9% individual REO purity from both recycled magnets and MREC feedstocks.
The entire flowsheet — from EOL magnet or MREC feedstock through to individual, high-purity Nd₂O₃, Pr₆O₁₁, Dy₂O₃, Tb₄O₇ — is now fully decoupled from China.
This applies to:
🏭 The Belfast commercial facility (£12M UK Government grant cornerstone, 400 tpa commercial REO plant)
🌎 The Viridion JV (IXR × VMM) for MREC processing in Brazil
🇺🇸 Any future US licensee deployment under the FORGE initiative
Nth Cycle is positioning as the reagent-independence layer that sits beneath the entire Western rare earth refining industry. ♻️
🏆 The Nth Cycle story in numbers:
🎓 Founded 2017 — day after Megan O'Connor defended her PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering (co-founders: Prof. Chad Vecitis, Harvard; Prof. Desirée Plata, MIT)
🔋 Technology originally built for rare earths (2017–2019), then pivoted to battery minerals, now returning to rare earths with the Ionic RE partnership
💵 US$1.1 billion, 10-year offtake agreement with Trafigura for recycled battery materials — one of the largest deals ever in the sector
⚙️ Technology proven at commercial qualification facility in Ohio
🌍 Projects in development across North America, Europe, and global allied markets
📋 Business model: build/own/operate for battery minerals (Trafigura model); licensing + joint development for rare earths and copper (Ionic RE model)
💡 The bigger picture — from Megan O'Connor directly:
"Onshoring rare earth refining may reduce processing in China, but it doesn't reduce reliance on them to process here. This partnership changes that."
"I think the elevation and the understanding of how important refining is — that is the only piece that we focus on, knowing that it was going to be one of the hardest things to innovate around and to scale."
"Critical minerals are the building blocks of this new energy economy, they're the building blocks for our defense systems. We need to figure out a way to build this robust supply chain."
The West has spent years building mining projects and announcing recycling initiatives. The Nth Cycle × Ionic RE partnership is the first announced solution to a dependency that was invisible to most of the market — and it arrives at exactly the moment the rare earth refining race is accelerating fastest. ⚡🔬
🎙️ Watch the full Benchmark Minerals interview with Megan O'Connor:👇
#NthCycle #MeganOConnor #IonicRareEarths #IonicTechnologies #IXR #ASX #TimHarrison #RareEarths #REE #CriticalMinerals #OxalicAcid #ElectroExtraction #HiddenDependency
#MineToMagnet ⚗️⚡🔬🔒🌍🇺🇸🇬🇧🇧🇷♻️💎
📣 IXR VIDEO + TIM HARRISON ON SWARF
🎬 Watch this before the next post.
$IXR Managing Director Tim Harrison just explained something most investors completely miss about the $14B rare earth buildout happening right now in the US. 🧵
▶️ https://t.co/O8fkiZZOJo
🧲 Start with 100 units of rare earth oxide.
By the time a finished magnet ships to an OEM:
→ Metal conversion: losses
→ Alloy blending: losses
→ Block sintering: losses
→ Cutting & shaping: losses
Only 60–75 units walk out the front door.
The rest? Locked up in waste streams. Swarf.
⚙️ What is swarf?
🧲It's the metallic filings, ribbons and slurry generated every time a sintered NdFeB block is cut and ground to its final shape.
It's not scrap. It's not contaminated.
It's the same alloy that just came out of a £100k/tonne melt — Neodymium, Praseodymium, Dysprosium, Terbium — sitting on a factory floor.
30–40% rare earth elements by weight. Known composition. Clean.
🌍 The US scale Tim laid out:
~$7B invested across
8 new US magnet facilities
→ 50,000+ tonnes NdFeB per year
→ >20,000 tonnes of swarf per year generated
🏭 What Ionic Technologies does with it:
The MAIL (Multifunctional Amide Ionic Liquid) process dissolves swarf and separates it into individual high-purity rare earth oxides at >99.9% purity:
🟤 Praseodymium Oxide
⚪ Neodymium Oxide
🟫 Terbium Oxide
🤍 Dysprosium Oxide
Ready to re-enter magnet manufacturing. No China. No mine. No new extraction.
📍 Where Ionic sits right now:
✅ Belfast facility — capital stack finalising, construction decision 2026, production H1 2028
✅ Ford supply chain — recycled oxides validated ✔️
✅ Advanced Magnet Lab US — oxides into defense validation programs ✔️
✅ Brazil — Viridian JV, recycling + primary REO refining
✅ US rollout — multiple plants targeted by end of decade
"The UK is projected to consume 12% of global NdFeB magnets by end of decade — the government wants to build a value chain there." — Tim Harrison
👇 Coming Soon: The Swarf Infographic — what that factory floor waste actually looks like, from cutting machine to separated oxides.
📌 $IXR ASX · @roblun1
▶️ Full video: https://t.co/O8fkiZZOJo
@IONIC_RE @IONICTECH_UK #VAC #eVac #ReEVALUATE @CMA_Minerals #MagnetMakers
#IonicRareEarths #IonicTechnologies #IXR #ASX #TimHarrison #MagnetSwarf #Swarf #NdFeB #RareEarths #REE #CriticalMinerals #MagnetRecycling #MAILProcess #CircularEconomy #WesternSupplyChain #Neodymium #Praseodymium #Dysprosium #Terbium #NdPr #PermanentMagnets 🧲⚙️♻️💎🏭🇬🇧🇺🇸🇧🇷
Ionic Rare Earths (ASX) is positioning itself at the centre of the global push for secure and sustainable rare earth supply chains through its patented magnet recycling and refining technology. The company is focused on recovering and refining critical magnet rare earths used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, defence systems and advanced manufacturing.
Through its wholly owned subsidiary Ionic Technologies, the company is developing a commercial-scale rare earth recycling facility in Belfast while expanding partnerships across the United States and Europe to establish a traceable, ex-China supply chain for critical materials.
Ionic Rare Earths Managing Director Tim Harrison joins The Stock Network's Lel Smits to discuss the company's technology, recent U.S. defence-related agreements and the growing strategic importance of rare earth recycling.
1. Building a Western rare earth supply chain
Rare earth supply chains remain heavily concentrated in China. How is Ionic Rare Earths helping establish a secure and independent supply chain for critical magnet rare earths across Western markets?
2. Commercialising Ionic Technologies
Your patented recycling and refining technology has demonstrated the ability to produce magnet rare earth oxides at high purity while significantly reducing emissions. What are your priorities as you move toward commercial-scale operations?
3. U.S. defence and advanced manufacturing opportunity
Ionic Rare Earths recently signed agreements with Advanced Magnet Lab in the United States to supply rare earth oxides for permanent magnets used in defence applications. How significant is this partnership and what does it say about demand?
4. Closing the loop through recycling
A key part of your strategy is creating a circular economy for rare earths by recycling magnet waste and end-of-life materials. How does this model differentiate Ionic Rare Earths from traditional mining-focused rare earth companies?
5. Growth outlook and global expansion
As governments increasingly prioritise critical minerals security, where do you see the biggest opportunities for Ionic Rare Earths over the next three to five years?
👇
@IONIC_RE @IONICTECH_UK @timhorizonmet #RareEarths #NdPr #DyTb
https://t.co/PFkk4Rs7r2
Qui dit vrai ? 👇
RDC #Lithium de #Manono : concernant les 20 millions USD du compte séquestre, $AVZ a-t-elle versé l’argent et #Dathomir a-t-elle vendu ses parts à AVZ ? https://t.co/rkGiPeAP7N via @AfroNews24
@KoBold_Metals @MinMinesRDC @LouisWKabamba @AvzMinerals @US_SrAdvisorAF @Manonolithium @kitungwa @CelestinKibeya @resourmatters @ChristianLukusa @NgefaGuillaume @IgfRdc @Presidence_RDC
Un grand merci à @Kiki pour avoir confirmé que $AVZ détient bien 75 % des parts de Manono Lithium.
L'affirmation de #Zijin concernant sa participation de 15 % est totalement infondée : une preuve supplémentaire de la #corruption de Cominière @cominiereSA et @LisetteKabanga et @CelestinKibeya 💸
@StateDept @US_SrAdvisorAF @MinMinesRDC @JusticeGouvCD #Manono #Lithium
Où en est l'enquête sur le vol de 20 millions de dollars américains sur le compte séquestre $AVZ détenu chez Rawbank @Rawbank_sa ?
Compte tenu de la gravité de ce délit financier, une mise à jour officielle du ministère des Mines @MinMinesRDC et du ministère de la Justice est nécessaire de toute urgence @JusticeGouvCD
#stolen #Escrow #DRC #Manono #Zijin @US_SrAdvisorAF @StateDept
CHAPITRE I : RDC ; lithium de Manono, historique des 20 millions USD des fonds d’AVZ issus du compte séquestre. https://t.co/PGbcaCk6T6 via @AfroNews24
@AvzMinerals @KoBold_Metals @US_SrAdvisorAF @USAenFrancais @MinMinesRDC @LouisWKabamba @CelestinKibeya @Manonolithium @ChrisKitungwa @ChristianLukusa
@Scott33014091 @emil_jens @LisetteKabanga @CelestinKibeya Not sure why as an AVZ holder you’d ask Jens, who’s constantly stepping up & taking the fight 🥊 to move on…
I’d suggest give him the thumbs up mate for his efforts.
@StateDept critical minerals, “secure our supply chain… monopolies” one obviously being #lithium #DRC $AVZ
[Vidéo] #RDC_minning🇨🇩
#lithium #Manono
En image les neuf signaux d’alerte de @resourmatters, illustrant les risques de #corruption dans le secteur du lithium.
Sans vigilance et transparence, la richesse que représente le lithium congolais pourrait se transformer en pillage des ressources de la RDC et en cauchemar pour la population congolaise, comme cela a déjà été le cas pour le cuivre, le coltan ou le cobalt.
@AvzMinerals @KoBold_Metals @US_SrAdvisorAF @marcorubio @MinMinesRDC @LouisWKabamba @IgfRdc
@kamba82 https://t.co/MLDOO9yT0O
Quid des 70 millions USD à l'ONG le Bouclier de Didier E'Nzangi
RDC : la COMINIÈRE répond aux neuf signaux d’alerte soulevés par Resource Matters sur le lithium de Manono https://t.co/PauyDd8YO4 via @AfroNews24
@AvzMinerals @KoBold_Metals @MinMinesRDC @LouisWKabamba @ChrisKitungwa @resourmatters @US_SrAdvisorAF
@CelestinKibeya @MinMinesRDC @MinITP_RDC @cominiereSA Promoting your stolen Manono which deposit was proven up by $AVZ 🤔
🧲♻️ The World's First. Ford Just Proved It Works.
A UK consortium led by Ionic Rare Earths ($IXR 🇦🇺 ASX) just completed the world's first end‑to‑end recycled rare earth supply chain for an EV motor — and Ford officially validated it.
Hat tip to @ElectricViking (Sam Evans) for covering this when almost nobody else did. 🙏
Here's the exact chain — zero Chinese inputs, zero virgin ore:
🔵 Ionic Technologies (Belfast) — took scrap NdFeB magnets and recycled them back to individually separated rare earth oxides:
Nd₂O₃ → 99.87% purity
Dy₂O₃ → 99.56% purity
Tb₄O₇ → 99.75% purity
— from 100% recycled feedstock
🔵 Less Common Metals (LCM, UK) — converted those recycled oxides into metal and strip‑cast alloy to exact magnet specifications
🔵 GKN (Germany) — manufactured the first finished recycled magnets
🔵 Ford Halewood (UK) — built two complete test rotors from those magnets
🔵 Ford Dunton R&D — ran the rotor on a dynamometer through the full durability test cycle. Result: directly comparable to rotors built with production‑grade freshly mined rare earth magnets. First attempt.
Ford's UK Innovation Manager Dennis Wilt: "We proved recycled magnets can meet our rigorous commercial standards on the very first attempt."
Why the timing matters:
China introduced export licensing for Dy and Tb earlier this year — the exact two heavy rare earths used in this project. When those controls hit, European rare earth prices surged to 6× the Chinese domestic price. Ford itself suffered production disruptions.
This project is a direct answer to that vulnerability.
The UK government context:
Funded via Innovate UK / Dept for Business & Trade. Flagship project among 36 circular rare earth initiatives. UK target: 20% of critical minerals from recycling by 2035. Currently at just 6%.
Ionic Technologies is a confirmed DRIVE35 Collaborate winner alongside Ford, with a pending ATF application for the commercial‑scale Belfast facility — the next step from proof‑of‑concept to 400 tpa sovereign production.
The proof is done.
1. Purity ✅
2. Durability ✅
3. Western supply chain, scrap to spinning rotors ✅
Now it needs to scale. 🏭
$IXR 🇦🇺🇬🇧🧲♻️
📌 Video: @ElectricViking — "FIRST EVER: Ford's breakthrough EV motor uses 100% recycled magnets"
📌 Photos: Ford Halewood test rotor + recycled NdFeB magnets
📌 Photos: Nd Ingots, After reduction, Dy & Tb ingots after Vacuum remelting, Less Common Metals
📌Photos: PMSM Permanent Magnet Synchronous motor, NdPr Oxide and Nd Oxide
@IONICTECH_UK @IONIC_RE @forduk @LessCommonMetal #IXR #IonicRareEarths #IonicTechnologies #FordMotor #EV #ElectricVehicle #RecycledMagnets #NdFeB #RareEarths #MagnetRecycling #Dysprosium #Terbium #Neodymium #LCM #LessCommonMetals #GKN #DRIVE35 #InnovateUK #CriticalMinerals #CircularEconomy #SupplyChainSecurity #WesternSupplyChain #EVMotor #Ford #Halewood #Belfast #ElectricViking #ChinaExportControls #SovereignSupplyChain #NdFeB ♻️🧲🇬🇧🇦🇺🚗⚡
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