Circa 2021
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.