RE: Samarium magnets17 Dec 2025 10:39
How HPMS fits for Sm magnetsHPMS/HD applicability:
The foundational University of Birmingham patent on “Magnet Recycling” explicitly covers exposing rare‑earth magnets including SmCo to hydrogen to effect decrepitation into particulate material, enabling separation and reuse as a powder feedstock. This demonstrates that the HPMS/HD step works on SmCo, not just NdFeB.
From powder to Sm recovery: Selective hydrometallurgical flowsheets exist that recover heavy rare earths including samarium from processed magnet material; a CEA patent explicitly discusses recovering heavy REs and notes recycling samarium from SmCo‑type magnets.
This supports using HPMS as the comminution/demagnetization front‑end, followed by solution extraction/precipitation to recover Sm