Recycling Neodymium woofer magnets?

D

drew gandy

Junior
Jul 17, 2011
419
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16
Chicago
Given the political and geographical situation with rare earth metals, I've been curious about the recyclability of speaker magnets. In my travels I've never heard any talk about this from manufacturers or anywhere else. I've got a handful of B&C woofers that, despite the availability of recone kits, are not worth repairing on account of the cost. (Last time I checked, it's only a few more dollars to get an entire new driver.) Should these be 'landfilled'?

[I seem to recall that B&C made a statement a few years ago where they said that despite the worldwide neodymium market challenges, they had a secure source/supply of neo for the foreseeable future.]
 
Entirely a surmise on my part but I'd expect that since most neodymium is used in fairly tiny amounts in say cell phones and household gadgets that there isn't much of a recycling extraction process that can efficiently recover enough material to be economically viable. Pro loudspeakers may may on the large end in terms of the mass of material utilized but as we know that market is minuscule compared to the larger consumer electronics market so probably doesn't move the recycling meter.
 
You're probably right about the economics. But it would seem to me that a professional loudspeaker would be the ideal item to try recycle. There's a much larger piece of magnet there than in all the small devices. And given the concern that the US gov and military seem to have about the supply chain of rare earths, I would think they might be trying to snag the old drivers. Or perhaps, if major war breaks out, we'll be beating our plows into swords (changing line array boxes into weapon guidance systems.
 
Keep them to make interference chokes! Pretty decent at stopping RF currents passsing down cables with a few turns and tape.
 
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