The Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security has officially authorized the construction of the European Union's first industrial-scale rare earth recycling facility, located at the Itelyum Regeneration site in Ceccano. Co-funded by the EU’s LIFE Programme and recognized as one of 47 strategic initiatives under the Critical Raw Materials Act, the project aims to systematically extract high-value elements such as neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium from end-of-life electronic waste, computer hard drives, and electric vehicle motors. Utilizing advanced hydrometallurgical technology developed by the University of L'Aquila, the facility is designed to significantly reduce Europe's heavy reliance on critical raw material imports, which are currently dominated by foreign suppliers like China.

Once fully operational, the plant is targeted to scale up its processing capacity to handle 2,000 tons of discarded permanent magnets annually, translating to an expected output of roughly 170 tons of high-purity rare earth oxides and carbonates per year. This state-of-the-art circular economy infrastructure features a low-impact chemical recycling process that heavily recycles water and chemical agents, dramatically lowering the carbon and environmental footprint compared to traditional primary raw material mining. Global automotive conglomerates, electronics manufacturers, and clean-tech developers are tracking this rollout closely, as major industrial players like Stellantis have already committed to off-taking and reintroducing these recovered materials directly back into the green energy supply chain.
Source:
https://pontianakpost.jawapos.com/internasional/2606260063/italia-bangun-pabrik-daur-ulang-logam-tanah-jarang-pertama-uni-eropa