Rare earth magnets are amongst the key ‘critical minerals’ that are integral to modern life.
They form a core building block in technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, medical equipment, pumps, robotics, and electronics.
Demand for these minerals will only increase as the adoption of low-carbon technologies accelerates and they are fundamental to the UK’s modern industrial strategy.
Opened by Chris McDonald MP, Minister for Industry in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade, Birmingham’s rare earth magnet recycling facility uses a hydrogen-based process developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham.
Innovative rare earth recycling process
Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap (HPMS) technology is an extremely efficient method to extract rare earth magnets from end-of-life products without the need to disassemble them fully.
It transforms waste into a sustainable UK source of rare earths that can be used to manufacture new metals, alloys and magnets whilst reducing both environmental impact, cost and supply chain risk.
The facility at Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham scales the process to commercial production levels.
The previous proof of concept facility handled batches of 50-100kg size, while the new scaled-up facility can recover over 400kg of rare earth alloy per batch and into new sintered magnets at 100 tonne capacity per year on a single shift and over 300 tonnes on multiple shifts.
Magnets can be produced at a fraction of the environmental impact and cost compared to primary production methods.
The processing facility re-introduces sintered rare earth magnet production back into the UK for the first time in 25 years, and this can be used for primary production of magnets as well as from recycled feeds.
By recycling products such as hard drives, electric motors, wind turbines, robotic actuators, pumps, filters, and electronics, this also delivers a CO2 saving of around 90 percent compared to producing magnets from minerals extracted from the ground.
In November 2025, the UK Government published its updated ‘Vision 2035: Critical Minerals Strategy’ setting out how the UK will increase resilience in this strategic sector.
The Birmingham recycling facility aims to address the strategy’s goals and is a stepping stone to a larger scale facility being developed on the site.
Minister for Industry Chris McDonald MP said: "This new facility is great news for the West Midlands, which will help create hundreds of well-paid local jobs and is testament to our world-leading expertise in rare earth recycling.
“This is our Critical Minerals Strategy in action, bringing sintered magnet manufacturing back to the UK for the first time in 25 years and backing innovative projects to boost our critical minerals supply chains and power the green industries of the future.”
Circular solutions for critical minerals
Rare earth recycling sits within the University of Birmingham’s broader research strengths in battery recycling, robotic disassembly, chemical recovery, and energy storage.
Professor Rachel O’Reilly MBE FRS FRSC, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Birmingham, said: “By developing complete circular solutions for the supply of critical minerals such as those found in rare earth magnets, the University of Birmingham is playing an essential role in helping the UK become a technological leader in this field.
“Supported directly by the University itself and through the allocation of QR funding from Research England and programme funding from UKRI, this is a brilliant development of the UK’s competitive advantage.
“Opening the Birmingham magnet recycling facility highlights the vital role of university-led research and development in delivering industrial capabilities and addressing national resilience and sustainability goals identified among the UK Government’s strategic and societal priorities.”
The recycling facility has been funded (£4.5 million) by Innovate UK’s Driving the Electric Industrialisation Centres (DER-IC) with supporting grants via the Innovate Climates Programme, EPSRC, the Advanced Propulsion Centre, and EU Horizon grants.
This investment supported the UK’s push towards a net zero carbon economy and contributed to the development of clean technology supply chains.
Bruce Adderley from Innovate UK said: “Through the realisation of this magnet recycling facility, the UK now has all the constituent parts of a rare earth permanent magnet supply chain for the first time in over two decades.
“As an open access facility, this provides UK industry the opportunity to access the skills and expertise, from the University of Birmingham team to scale and commercialise this innovative recycling process.
“This is a fantastic example of research to industry knowledge transfer and has the potential to de-risk the supply of rare earth permanent magnets to the UK’s manufacturing industry and make these crucial components more sustainable.”
Strategic UK focus for critical materials
In 2021, the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements and Critical Materials (BCSECM) at the University of Birmingham produced a Policy Commission report titled “Securing Technology-Critical Metals for Britain” in conjunction with multiple partners.
Researchers warned that the UK faced major industrial shifts as it transitions from fossil fuels to electrification, increasing dependence on technology-critical metals (TCMs) such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths.
They recommended that developing strategies for recycling, primary production, processing, and international partnerships would be crucial to securing materials needed for the UK’s low-carbon, competitive industrial future, and this document helped frame the first UK Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022.
Lead investigator and Head of the Magnetic Materials Group (MMG) Professor Allan Walton said: “The late Emeritus Professor Rex Harris started recycling activities in the group over 20 years ago.
“Since then, the group has scaled up multiple recycling processes to sense, sort, extract, and purify rare earth magnets.
“This has only been possible because of the commitment of the highly skilled team within the Magnetic Materials Group and working with partners across the rare earth value chain on large interdisciplinary projects.
“The University of Birmingham recycling facility will provide recycled feedstock to multiple parts of the UK rare earth value chain. It will drive job creation, workforce skills development, and long-term economic growth in the UK.
“Our region has a proud manufacturing heritage, and the Midlands is key to the midstream of the UK’s critical materials supply chain.”
Recycling technologies developed by the Magnetic Materials Group at the University of Birmingham have been exclusively licensed to Hypromag Ltd, which is now 100 percent owned by Maginito Ltd, a subsidiary of AIM/TSXV listed Mkango Resources.
William Dawes, Chief Executive of Mkango and Director of HyProMa,g said: “This is a landmark achievement and transformational for rare earth supply chains, bringing back magnet manufacturing to the UK after more than 20 years and underpinned by a home-grown technology, HPMS, that not only delivers a cost advantage, but one with a minimal carbon footprint.
“It is fantastic to see HPMS technology progress to commercialisation with the support of Innovate UK and other stakeholders, a credit to the vision and determination of everyone involved.
“This development provides a strong platform for further scale-up in the UK and international roll-out, already underway in Germany, USA, and other countries.”
David Watkin, Battery Services Lead, JLR, said: “Rare-earth elements are crucial for electric and connected vehicle,s and at JLR, we’re focused heavily on advancing circularity through reduced content, designing for disassembly and, as the infrastructure matures, shifting from virgin to recycled material.
“Opening a UK recycling facility for rare earth magnets marks a significant step forward in supporting a more resilient, responsible, and lower carbon supply chain.”