World 's Rare Earth Elements Research Articles

A Semi-automatic System for Efficient Recovery of Rare Earth Permanent Magnets from Hard Disk Drives

Rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) are essential components in many electrical and electronic products, including clean energy applications. Currently over 90% of the world's rare earth elements (REEs) are produced in China, leading many other countries to classify REES as critical materials. Recycling is one of the approaches to address the supply risks. Unfortunately, to date, the recycling rate of REPMs has been very low and no industrial scale recovery of REPMs from end of life products exists. As a result, REEs end up either in the landfill or in the smelting slag while other more “common” metals are recycled. One explanation for why REPMs have not been retrieved from used products is that it can be time consuming and expensive if the labor cost is high. This paper reports the development of a semi-automatic system for profitably recovering REPMs from hard disk drives to maximize REEs resource efficiency.

Rare-earth elements market: A historical and financial perspective

Rare earth elements (REEs), which include the lanthanides, yttrium, and scandium, have been the focus of several studies in recent years due to their contribution to modern technology (e.g. screens of smart phones, computers, and flat panel televisions; batteries of hybrid and electric cars), China's dominance in production and consumption, and to the international dependence on China for most of the world's REE supply.The aim of this study is two-fold. First, to offer a historical perspective of the REE market by constructing and analyzing time series of consumption, production, and oxide/metal prices. Such series are mostly non-existent (e.g., consumption) or scattered across different sources (e.g., prices). Second, to provide a financial perspective of the REE market by gauging the market capitalization and systematic risk of leading companies involved in exploration, production and processing of REEs worldwide; and, by measuring co-movement of REE prices and commodity indices. We contribute to the existing literature by providing a thorough overview of the REE market.