“The iron and nickel atoms have to rearrange themselves. And nature will do it, but it will take millions of years to do,” Laura Lewis, one of the researchers involved in the study, said in a media statement. “So if we can do it in industrially relevant time scales, we will have a nice new addition to the permanent magnet portfolio.”
According to Lewis, decoupling the scarce materials from magnet production not only provides sorely needed supply chain relief—there simply aren’t enough magnets to meet the world’s energy needs—but it will help rebalance geopolitical tensions by easing the US dependence on Chinese rare earths.
China controls close to 80% of the world’s rare earths supply, while global demand for REE magnets is expected to reach $37 billion by 2027.
In Lewis’ view, however, having a single source of REEs is not the only issue at hand.
“It’s beyond just scarcity,” she said. “Because the…
