European Training Network for the Design and Recycling of Rare-Earth Permanent Magnet Motors and Generators in Hybrid and Full Electric Vehicles (DEMETER)

On March 9, 2018, Bieke Onghena (SIM² KU Leuven) obtained her PhD degree in Chemistry. She successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Ionic liquid solvent extraction (SX) for the recovery of rare earths (REEs) and cobalt (Co).

ETN SOCRATES and METGROW+ have published a joint Policy Brief on the Social License to Operate for the Mining and Recycling of Critical Metals, which is meant to stimulate this crucial debate for the EU mining/metallurgy sector.

Ionic liquids (ILs) are widely studied to recover metals from ores or end-of-life products, but not above 100 °C and atmospheric pressure. Here the IL [Hbet][Tf2N] was used dry to leach NdFeB magnets and scrap at high temperature.

Following the Social License to Operate Symposium in Leuven (Feb’ 21, 2018, Artefact), Dirk Draulans (a renowned science journalist), produced a three-page article for Knack, Flanders’ leading political (weekly) magazine.

In this article “Five lessons learned” Peter Tom Jones reflects on the Artefact Symposium on the Social License to Operate for mining & recycling of critical metals and summarises some key take-home messages. Reactions are welcome.

Following their previous, widely-cited work with respect to the rare-earth element Balance Problem, Prof. Binnemans and colleagues have just published a thorough update of this key issue in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy.

On February 8, 2018, Umicore reported a net profit of 267 million euro in 2017. Concurrently, Umicore announced an investment of 660 million euro to ramp up the production of battery (cathode) materials for a.o. electric vehicles.

Join us in Leuven on February 21 for a unique Symposium on the Social License to Operate for mining of critical metals. The Symposium is part of the Arts festival “Artefact 2018: This Rare Earth – Stories from Below”.

ETN DEMETER, which investigates how to extract and recycle rare earth magnets from electric vehicle motors, features on the EC website in the series "Success Stories". Prof. Binnemans (coordinator DEMETER) outlines the challenges.

The EU FP7 EURARE project team has published a concluding project brochure, explaining how Europe can create a sustainable European rare-earth supply chain. A must read!