Italian deep-tech company RarEarth began a European Innovation Council project on 1 October 2026, backed by 2.48 million euros from the European Union, to move its rare-earth magnet recycling technology toward wider industrial deployment. The project is scheduled to run from October 2026 to September 2028 and targets production of new, high-performance NdFeB magnets from end-of-life magnets recovered from electrical and electronic equipment.
Rather than stopping at a mixed rare-earth concentrate, the integrated process combines automated dismantling, purification, alloy re-engineering and magnet manufacturing. The project identifies its key process steps as being at technology readiness level 6 (TRL 6). RarEarth is based in Italy, and the work addresses Europe’s circular-economy and industrial-sovereignty strategies through recycling and manufacturing of rare-earth magnets.
Project documentation reports that independent validation has shown recycled magnets can achieve magnetic performance comparable with magnets made from virgin material. It also reports large reductions in energy use and production cost compared with indirect hydrometallurgical routes. Those savings still need to be tested at commercial scale and across different waste feeds. A direct closed-loop process could avoid conversion stages that add cost, consume energy and result in material loss.
Producing component-ready material in Europe could retain more value in the region than making an intermediate that still needs overseas refining or alloying. The project targets one of Europe’s most concentrated strategic dependencies, but scaling collection and processing involves magnets dispersed across motors, drives, appliances and electronics. They are often bonded, coated or embedded in assemblies not designed for recovery.
Automated dismantling is central to the process, while consistent feed quality is needed for recycled magnets to meet the tight specifications required by automotive and industrial customers. If RarEarth scales collection, dismantling and manufacturing together, the technology could demonstrate that permanent magnets can circulate in a European manufacturing loop with performance suited to high-value applications.
