The final MaXycle meeting was held in Slovenia, Goriška Brda, on 20.-22. June 2021 and was organized by the coordinator, Jožef Stefan Institute (Agenda). All partners were presented except for the supporting partner, the University of Birmingham. The members of the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, IVL, were connected online through Teams. The REIA Secretary-General, Dr. Nabeel Mancheri, participated online as the external advisor.
Magneti, MIMPlus, Hochschule Pforzheim, and Jožef Stefan Institute presented final results concerning new magnets’ production from recycled material. The results are very promising with all techniques applied; regular sintering, the SDS method, and SPS sintering. IVL presented the final results for the Life Cycle and Cost Cycle Assessment. The database of end of life magnets is completed. It gives a better picture that the collection, dismantling, sorting, recovering, enhancement, and production of EOL magnets is much more complicated and time-consuming than envisioned at the beginning of the project due to unregulated magnet production. Leonard Ansorge from the recycling company RockLink attended the meeting as an associate partner and presented his view on recycling “Rethinking Scrap Collection and Separation”. All partners were involved in the section “Brainstorming, Ideas for the future collaboration” and in the round table discussion on Green Energy: Quantifying environmental impacts in rare earth value chains. Prof. Dr. Jean-Marie Dubois evaluated the project outcome as an independent observer throughout the duration of the project. The assessment was highly enthusiastic.
