French government recognises strategic importance of Rare Earths with major investment in permanent magnet recycling

Rare Earth Elements are a driving force for the electrification in the mobility sector and European strategic autonomy

Recognition of the strategic importance of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in the drive for electrification in the mobility sector and European strategic autonomy has been given a boost by the French government as they announce a Recovery Fund investment of EUR 15M in Carester. The company, founded in 2019 and an active ERMA partner, has ambitious plans to construct a EUR 56M facility which will extract and recycle REEs from permanent magnets.

A truly green recycling process for REEs made in Europe

The Carester team is working on a world-class recycling facility to enable a truly green process in Europe without generating any liquid effluents. The new recycling process will decrease the CO2 emissions by a minimum of 30% and cut the water consumption by 80%. Moreover, the French-based company will include boron, which nowadays goes into waste, into the recycling loop.

Carester seeks additional financial support to introduce the new recycling process. This year, the company has successfully closed its financing round and plans to raise EUR 20M in 2022. With external funding to scale up, Carester recognises the need for a strong network. As a partner of ERMA, Carester is part of a well-established and vast network of over 500 stakeholders.

https://erma.eu/french-government-recognises-strategic-importance-of-rare-earths-with-major-investment-in-permanent-magnet-recycling/

“Our target is to recover all kinds of end-of-life magnets which contain rare earth elements and to produce separated rare earth oxides. We will produce raw materials from magnets of the same quality as the virgin material. It means we can recycle as much as we want without compromising the quality.”