Circa 2021

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Nissan and Waseda University in Tokyo have been working together since 2017, and today, they announced that they are starting the testing of a recycling process that recovers high-purity, rare-earth compounds from electric vehicle motor magnets.

First, they heat a used motor to 2,552F (1,400C) to melt it down. Then iron oxide is added to oxidize the rare-earth elements (REEs).

Next, a small amount of borate-based flux, which can dissolve rare-earth oxides and recover REEs efficiently, is added to the molten mixture.