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REWAS 2019 pp 295–304Cite as

Rare Earth Magnet Recovery from Hard Drives by Preferential Degradation

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Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

Abstract

Neodymium recycling by the mineral processing practice of liberation and separation of hard disk drives is envisioned and evaluated. Magnetic material is liberated from the hard drive, constructed mostly of malleable metals, by preferential degradation of the brittle magnet material. The process developed is shown to recover greater than ninety-five percent of the magnet material with a product grade of over 80% magnet material by mass. The process is designed to co-produce stainless steel , aluminum, nickel alloy, carbon steel, and printed circuit board concentrates as contributors to the recycle value of hard drives.

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References

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Acknowledgements

This work was completed with support from the Critical Materials Institute, an Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Brandon Ott, D. Erik Spiller & Patrick R. Taylor

Authors
  1. Brandon Ott
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  2. D. Erik Spiller
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  3. Patrick R. Taylor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brandon Ott .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred University, Alfred, NY, USA

    Gabrielle Gaustad

  2. Gopher Resource, Eagan, MN, USA

    Camille Fleuriault

  3. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Mertol Gökelma

  4. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    John A. Howarter

  5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Randolph Kirchain

  6. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Kaka Ma

  7. Umicore, Olen, Belgium

    Christina Meskers

  8. IND LLC, South Jordan, UT, USA

    Neale R. Neelameggham

  9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Elsa Olivetti

  10. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA

    Adam C. Powell

  11. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA

    Fiseha Tesfaye

  12. Johan Gadolin Process Chem Ctr, Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Dirk Verhulst

  13. ArcelorMittal Global R&D, Schererville, IN, USA

    Mingming Zhang

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© 2019 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

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Cite this paper

Ott, B., Spiller, D.E., Taylor, P.R. (2019). Rare Earth Magnet Recovery from Hard Drives by Preferential Degradation. In: Gaustad, G., et al. REWAS 2019. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10386-6_34

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