Although several methods for recovering valuable metals
from magnet alloys have been investigated in the past, most
of these recycling processes are based on the re-melting or
oxidation of the alloy to recover Nd in the form of
compounds such as Nd2O3. At this stage, an efficient
recycling process has not been developed. Recently, a new
recycling process has been developed in which only valuable
Nd is extracted directly from scrapusing liquid metal,
without oxidation of Nd.3,4) To developa recycling process
for Nd–Fe–B alloy magnet scrap, a new and effective Nd
recovery method, which uses continuous magnesium (Mg)
circulation in the extraction system was investigated in this
study. The concept of this process of direct extraction and
recovery of metallic Nd from magnet scrapis shown in
Fig.