Towards a Sustainable Future: Circular Strategies for Critical Raw Materials Recovery from End-of-Life Magnets

The transition to a circular economy is crucial for addressing the environmental and resource challenges posed by traditional linear production models such as resource depletion, environmental degradation, and waste accumulation. In this context, growing interest is devoted to critical raw materials (CRMs), including rare earth elements (REEs), cobalt, and others, which play a vital role in clean energy technologies, advanced electronics and high-performance magnet applications. This study presents an eco-friendly method for the recovery of REEs from end-of-life (EoL) NdFeB permanent magnets. The proposed method involves a hydrometallurgical metal recovery using an aqueous solution of bio-based leaching agents (citric acid), enabling the one-pot material dissolution and selective precipitation of REE-based compounds. This approach demonstrates high recovery efficiency, with ≥ 90 wt.% of neodymium retained in the solid phase, and yields valuable metal-rich fractions that can be potentially repurposed into new advanced applications. By opening the possibility to valorize both REE-rich solids and base metal-containing leachates, the process offers a viable path toward reduced CRMs dependency and aligns with circular economy principles through waste minimization and resource reuse.