US electronic waste recycling company Intelligent Lifecycle Solutions will secure and store neodymium iron boron feedstock from hard disk drives and other sources for HyProMag USA under a new agreement, with the latter looking for funding for a rare earth magnet recycling and manufacturing plant in Texas.
HyProMag USA is owned 50-50 by Canadian-listed CoTec Holdings and UK-based HyProMag Limited. CoTec, which has just raised about US$9.9 million of equity funding, also owns 20.6% of a company called Maginito, which is HyProMag Limited’s parent.
Mkango Resources has the other 79.4% of Maginito.
CoTec CEO Julian Treger said the ILS deal was a step towards securing reliable long-term feed supply for HyProMag USA.
“We believe that over time we will be able to build sufficient feedstock to sustain several magnet recycling and manufacturing hubs as the company establishes itself as a key player in the US REE magnet industry,” Treger said.
“HyProMag USA is progressing with its financing and detailed design and has the potential to supply the US market with a sustainable, long term domestic supply of NdFeB permanent magnets, enabling the creation of secure, low carbon and traceable rare-earth supply chains”
ILS, an emerging player in the material recycling space, will use Insermia Anoia HDD magnet separation systems at pre-processing sites in Williston, South Carolina, and Reno, Nevada, under an agreement signed with HyProMag last year.
ILS CEO Graham Davy said the company aimed to procure rare earth material from government, manufacturing industry and businesses as well as other recycling sources.
“Our clients value HyProMag’s short-loop, low carbon solution whist retaining critical materials within the USA. Lifecycle Solutions will use its R2 accredited facilities in South Carolina, Nevada, to acquire and preprocess rare earth material for HyProMag USA. Magnets recovered from its subsidiary hard disk drive business will also be supplied,” he said.
HyProMag is commercialising HPMS recycling technology developed at the Magnetic Materials Group (MMG) at University of Birmingham in the UK, Germany and the US.
