China's NEV Production Boosts NdFeB Demand in Automotive Sector, Up 18.8% YoY

South Korea will launch a national R&D project to reuse fuel cells and rare earth permanent magnets recovered from scrapped hydrogen vehicles. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute announced on June 8 that they will begin a national R&D project to safely dismantle end-of-life hydrogen vehicles and reuse or recycle their key components. The ministry will invest KRW 40.8 billion from this year through 2029 to develop technologies in three major areas: safe removal of residual hydrogen and dismantling of key components; development of power generation systems using reused hydrogen storage tanks and fuel cells; and recovery of permanent magnets from end-of-life drive motors and conversion into high-purity rare earth materials.

[SMM Rare Earth Flash News] The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected Phoenix Tailings, based in Oklahoma, for funding negotiations to support its construction of a demonstration facility that will produce high-purity rare earth metals from industrial scrap locally. The project aims to develop a new commercial pathway to realize domestic production of heavy rare earth metals. The project is part of the DOE's "Rare Earth Element Demonstration Facility Program" with a total investment of $134 million, but the specific amount reserved for Phoenix Tailings has not been disclosed.

[SMM Rare Earth News] The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that it has selected a project led by the Colorado School of Mines for funding negotiations, aiming to advance the extraction and refining of rare earth elements from non-traditional resources such as “red mud.” The project will build a demonstration facility near an alumina refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana, to recover rare earths from bauxite waste, including separating them into rare earth oxides and further refining them into rare earth metals. The plan involves a total investment of $134 million, of which approximately $67 million will support the project, aiming to reduce US dependence on foreign rare earth resources and enhance the security and resilience of the domestic critical mineral supply chain.