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Jonathan Hykawy says the benefits are potentially huge. That's because iron and nickel are dirt cheap compared to rare earths like neodymium or terbium that we currently need to use when we make high-performance permanent magnets.

HYKAWY: Today, neodymium oxide is trading at about $100. It's $104 a kilo. Terbium oxide, which is one of the materials that allows magnets made with it to function at much higher temperatures than it normally would, that's trading at something like $1,900 a kilogram.

WOODS: But nickel and iron, on the other hand, trade for less than 25 bucks a kilogram. So you can see the cost-saving implications here if we can make permanent magnets out of such inexpensive materials.

HYKAWY: It's got the possibility and the potential of actually crippling the existing rare earths market.