China's rare earth export curbs: Battery recyclers look to mine opportunity

India requires a variety of rare earth elements-particularly neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium-primarily for use in permanent magnets for electric vehicles

China’s restrictions on rare earth exports have opened a window of opportunity for Indian battery material recyclers, with major players looking to scale up their extraction capacity for these critical materials.

 

Attero Recycling plans to increase its neodymium extraction from end-of-life magnets tenfold — from the current 1 tonne per month to 10 tonnes within a year. Similarly, Lohum Cleantech aims to expand its capacity to 3,000–5,000 tonnes per annum by 2026-27 (FY27), up from just 1 tonne at present, according to top executives at both firms. They expect to capture 75–80 per cent of the domestic market.

 

On April