doi: 10.1111/j.1751-3928.2008.00073.

Resource Geology Vol. 58, No. 4: 414422

Thematic Review

Rare Earth Magnets: Conservation of Energy and the

Environment
Takehisa Minowa
Magnetic Materials Research Center, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Echizen, Fukui, Japan

Abstract

Rare earth sintered magnets (Nd magnet) have been used in many applications such as computer and industrial equipment, automobile manufacturing and many others. They are highly efficient and reduce energy
consumption because of their superior magnetic properties. The element dysprosium (Dy) contained in the
Nd magnet is important and indispensable. It improves the stability of the Nd magnet by enhancing the coercive force of its magnetic properties at high temperature. Dy is not so abundant. The rapid growth of the Nd
magnet may result in Dy shortage. Exploration for new deposits of Dy is desired.
Keywords:
China, coercive force, deposit, dysprosium, ion-adsorption ore, Nd2Fe14B1, Nd magnet, neodymium,
rare earth magnet, resource issue.

1. Rare earth magnets

Permanent magnets have improved with regard to
performance dramatically over the last five decades
and they have become essential in modern life and industry. Thus, our lives depend directly or indirectly on
the function of permanent magnets.
The permanent magnets, which are currently used
in various kinds of industrial equipment, are approximately divided into two categories: the ferrite magnet
and the rare earth magnet. Ferrite magnets are oxide
magnets composed of mainly ferric oxide. Although
they do not have excellent magnetic properties, they
are produced in large quantities worldwide because
of their low cost and consequently have good cost
performance.
In contrast, despite the relatively high cost, nowadays rare earth magnets are widely used in various
high-performance devices due to their superior magnetic properties. The strength of rare earth magnets
exceeds those of ferrite magnets by approximately
10-fold, but the price is also approximately 10-fold that

of ferrite magnets. Accordingly, as far as the cost performance of the magnet itself is concerned, there is no
meaningful difference between these two types of
magnets. It is expected, however, that the overall performance of equipment, for example cost reduction by
downsizing of the equipment or reduction of power
consumption by improving of the energy efficiency,
can be improved. The rare earth magnets are indispensable in the design of products that realize miniaturization, high performance and energy saving.

2. Nd magnets
Rare earth magnets are divided into two categories,
that is, the SmCo-type rare earth magnets and the
NdFeB-type magnets (hereinafter referred to as Nd
magnets). With regard to current production, more
than 98% of the rare earth magnets are the Nd magnets; it can be said that a rare earth magnet is synonymous with an Nd magnet. In addition, there are two
types of the Nd magnets: sintered magnets and bond

Received 25 December 2007. Accepted for publication 30 January 2008.

Corresponding author: T. MINOWA, Magnetic Materials Research Center, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Kitago2-1-5, Echizen, Fukui, 915-0802,
Japan. Email: ttminowa@shinetsu.jp

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Rare earth magnet

magnets, made by blending resin, plastic and Nd magnetic particles. Sintered magnets, however, are predominant in production, so this paper will describe the
sintered Nd magnets (Fig. 1).
Nd2Fe14B1 intermetallic compound, which is a basic
component of the Nd magnet, was discovered by
Sagawa in 1983 (Sagawa, 1985). Realization of magnets
was achieved almost simultaneously with the discovery of an intermetallic compound, and Nd magnets
came to be produced on a commercial basis within a
few years of the discovery. Since then, increases in production and the improvement of magnetic properties
have been pursued continuously. In Japan, outstanding magnet research has been carried out: for example,
KS steel, MK steel as the base of Alnico magnets, OP
magnets as the origin of ferrite magnets, FeCrCo magnets, Sm2Co17-type magnets and the invention of Nd
magnets. Among them, the invention of the Nd type
magnets was the most useful with regard to the expansion of the applied products and the level of production, sales, and impact on society. Considering the
history of material development during the last quarter century, nothing compares to the success of the
invention of the Nd magnet.
As mentioned earlier, the subject of the present paper is the sintered Nd magnet, which is mainly composed of Nd2Fe14B1 intermetallic compounds. A typical
composition of the magnet is shown in Figure 2. Approximately 70% of the components are iron, and this
is the main reason why the cost of Nd magnets is lower
than that of SmCo magnets. Regarding rare earth elements (REE), 25wt% of Nd, which is comparatively
abundant, contains approximately 19 wt% of Dy.
Nd magnets are produced using a powder metallurgy process. An outline of the process is shown in
Figure 3. The major difference to the general powder
metallurgy method is the process in which compression molding is conducted in the magnetic field. The
crystal orientation of the fine powder is aligned in the
external magnetic field and then pressure is used to
guarantee magnetic anisotropy. As a result, the magnetic force is aligned in one direction, thereby producing strong magnetic properties. Next, the green
compacts are sintered at high temperatures. They
shrink in the liquid phase sintering and become denser
to almost the same extent as true density. At this time
the volume decreases by around half, so it is difficult to
obtain accurate dimensions.
After sintering, the magnets are polished on a diamond grindstone and finished according to product
size, and then surface-treated into products.
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Fig. 1
Products using sintered Nd magnets.

3. Applied products using Nd magnets

Nd magnets are utilized in many products and are indispensable to modern society. The products using Nd
magnets are listed in Table 1.
A typical application of Nd magnets is in the magnetic circuit for the head drive actuator in a hard disk
drive (HDD) of a computer. This magnetic circuit is
called the voice coil motor (VCM) for HDD. VCM originally referred to the magnetic circuit for the speaker; it
now refers to the magnetic circuit for HDD because its
form in the early days was similar to that of the magnetic circuit for the speaker. Every hard disk incorporates a VCM in which a couple of magnets are installed
(Fig. 4).
In 2007, 550 million HDD were produced all over the
world, which means that more than 1 billion Nd magnets were used for VCM. Because the recent HDD are
built not only into computers but also into thin-shaped
TV sets, car navigation systems, video cameras and
various electronic devices, the range of applications of
HDD is increasing.

Fig. 2
Typical composition of Nd magnet. Other: Co, Al,

Zr, Cu.

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T. Minowa

Fig. 3
Process of Nd magnet production.

Nd magnets are also used in various products including consumer electronics and audiovisual systems. They are used in motors in refrigerators,
washing machines and cleaners, and also in the latest compressors in air-conditioners. The shift from
traditional mainstream ferrite magnets to Nd magnets was due to performance improvement and
greater power savings. Because the heat pumps used
in air-conditioners can produce more heat than can
be produced by electric resistance, further development is anticipated with regard to energy conservation, reduction of CO2 emission and prevention of
global warming (Fig. 5).
Nd magnets are also crucial in high-power AC
servomotors for elevators, industrial robots, injection
molding machines and numerical control (NC) machine tools (Fig. 6).

Furthermore, the use of Nd magnets in automobile

applications has recently increased enormously.
Figure 7 illustrates some examples of the use of Nd
magnets in automobile parts.
Nd magnets are used not only in electric vehicles or
hybrid electric vehicles (Fig. 8), but also in conventional gasoline and diesel cars, for example in various
sensors, ignition coils and loudspeaker systems. It is
expected that the application of Nd magnets to electric
power steering systems will be expanded rapidly.
When making the switch from hydraulic power steering to an electrically powered system, the fuel consumption rate is improved by a couple of percent or
more. Considering that electric power steering will increase significantly hereafter, the use of Nd magnets in
power steering may exceed that in hybrid vehicles
depending on circumstances.

Table 1
Products utilizing Nd magnets

Field

Products

Computer
Domestic
Audiovisual
Industrial
Automobile
Others

VCM for HDD

Air conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine, cleaner, digital camera, electric shaver
Mobile phone, speaker, DVD, CD, mobile music player
Elevator, industrial robot, injection molding machine, NC processing machine, linear motor
Driving motor for HEV/fuel cell/electric power steering system, car sensor
MRI, motors for trains, wind power generators, electric bicycles

HDD, hard disk drive; HEV, hybrid electric vehicle; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; NC, numerical control;
VCM, voice coil motor.

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Rare earth magnet

Fig. 4
Hard disk drive and voice coil motor (VCM) magnetic circuit.

In any case, given that the automobile industry

has a responsibility to deal with environmental problems such as improvement of fuel efficiency and reduction of CO2 emission, it is expected that Nd
magnets will play a more important role in automobile
development.
Other Nd magnet products are found in diverse applications such as magnetic resonance imaging, motors
for electric trains, electric-powered bicycles and various generators. Moreover, the application of Nd magnets to large-scale or small-scale wind power generators
is being examined. Although the application has not
spread widely due to cost and technical problems, it is
expected that further research will be accelerated because of increasing demand for renewal energy.
As is evident from this explanation, Nd magnets are
used in the latest high-performance devices to improve
energy efficiency, achieve energy saving and improve
economic efficiency. Regardless of energy source,
namely, natural energy obtained from photovoltaic
power generation and bio-generator, nuclear power,
conventional fossil fuel, and so on, products using
Nd magnets save energy at the final stage of energy
consumption.

Fig. 5
Air-conditioner and Nd magnet rotor.

machined to the final dimensions, and some portion of

the magnet block is ground into sludge on the grindstone during production.
Outside Japan, rare-earth magnets are manufactured
mainly in China. According to Roskill (2007), China
produced 39,300 tons of sintered Nd magnet in 2006;
this is approximately fourfold higher than that in Japan
(11,000 tons). Roskill (2007) also reported that the total
weight of Nd magnet alloys produced in 2006 worldwide was approximately 50,000 tons. Assuming that
the Nd magnet market grows at a rate of 7% per year,
approximately 65,000 tons of Nd magnet alloys will be
produced in 2010 worldwide. Calculating from the typical composition of Nd magnets shown in Figure 1,
approximately 16,000 tons of Nd element and 2,600 tons
of Dy element will be needed to make alloys.

4. Resource issues of Nd magnets

In 2006, Japan produced approximately 8800 t of Nd
magnets. Assuming that the yield in the manufacturing process of Nd magnet alloys is around 80%, approximately 11,000 tons of the material alloys is used in
the production of Nd magnets . This is because approximately 20% of Nd magnet alloy is lost in the production process. The sintered block of Nd magnet is
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Fig. 6
AC servomotor and industrial robot.

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T. Minowa

Fig. 7
Automobile parts using

Nd magnets.

Neodymium, the major REE in the magnet, has few

resource problems. Neodymium is not rare because
the Earths crust contains the same amount of Nd as
Co (Taylor, 1964). Light REE including La, Ce and Nd
are mostly enriched in carbonatite-related ore deposits. The corbonetite-related ore deposits are widely
distributed throughout the world. Among them, the
two deposits of Mountain Pass, USA and Bayan Obo,
China have huge reserves. By the authors estimation, the Bayan Obo deposits have Nd element reserves of 500,000 tons and Mountain Pass has possible
Nd reserves of >200,000 tons; only these two places
have deposits equivalent to a 45-year stockpile to
meet possible world demand for Nd in 2010. Because
the Bayan Obo deposit also produces iron ores, it has
an economic advantage as compared with the other

Fig. 8
Engine and drive motor of hybrid electric vehicle.

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deposits. In 2006, it is conceivable that the Bayan Obo

deposit has produced 80% of Nd used in the world.
In this context, the resource problem for Nd is, if any,
that there is too much dependence on one particular
deposit, namely, Bayan Obo, China. The prices of REE
including Nd have increased gradually over the past
few years (e.g. Roskill, 2007). This is because China
capitalizes on being the single supplier. It is unimaginable, however, that the price of Nd will continue to
rise as it recently has. If the Nd price becomes too
high, mining companies will start to recover REE ores
on a global scale.
In contrast, the resource situation of Dy is different.
Without Dy, neodymium magnets cannot achieve sufficient magnetic field strength, therefore Dy is an indispensable component. In the fields of automobile
manufacturing and industrial motors, which are expanding in application, addition of Dy in large quantities is required in order to obtain stable magnetic
properties at high temperature.
The abundance of Dy in the Earths crust is approximately one-fifth that of Nd (Taylor, 1964). The
average quantity of Dy used for Nd magnets is approximately 3wt% (Dy : Nd = 1:8), which is smaller
than the ratio of Dy and Nd in the Earths crust.
Furthermore, Dy, as well as Nd, is virtually limited
to application in magnets. This means that there is
no problem because there is more than enough Dy
for use in magnet manufacturing. But there is a problem, however, in the quality of Dy deposits. The
number of Dy deposits that are economically viable
is very low.
Most of the heavy REE (HREE) are now recovered
from ion adsorption-style deposits in China. The deposits are mainly located in the northern part of Hong
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Rare earth magnet

Kong. Ion adsorption-style deposits occur in the

weathered crusts of granitic rocks, where REE, behaving as positively charged trivalent ions during weathering, are considered to be adsorbed on negatively
charged surfaces of clay minerals such as kaolinite
and halloysite (Wu et al., 1990). At the time of weathering, radioactive elements such as U and Th, originated in the host granite, flow off without being
adsorbed, resulting in a low level of radioactivity. The
peralkaline intrusion-related deposits are occasionally enriched in HREE (e.g. Baerzhe, China; Strange
Lake and Thor Lake, Canada). These HREE-enriched
peralkaline intrusion-related deposits contain more
xenotime YPO4 and zircon as carriers of HREE than
ion-adsorption ores. These deposits, however, are not
as economically useful as the ion-adsorption-style ore
deposits because the process of creating REE from the
chemical-resistant minerals with radioactive elements
results in a large number of toxins, thereby damaging
the environment. In ion-adsorption ores, however, it
is not necessary to process radioactive materials, and
the heavy rare earth ions are readily extractable using
acid. The heavy rare earth materials produced from
these ion-adsorption ores in China have overwhelming cost competitiveness combined with low labor
costs. This is almost the only deposit for Dy that is
economically viable and not contaminated with radioactive elements. Therefore it is likely that 80% of
Dy used for Nd magnets is produced from these ion
adsorption-type ores.
The main concern for future Nd magnet production
will be the shortage of Dy and Tb. The HREE are indispensable additive elements and are mainly recovered
not from carbonatite-related deposits but ion adsorption ore deposits.
Furthermore, there is likely to be a shortage of ion
adsorption ores because the authorities at all levels of
the Chinese government commenced a program to
protect the environment in the ion adsorption-style deposits in 2004. Local communities have been devastated by the indiscriminate mining of the deposits in
South China, particularly in Jiangxi Province (Roskill,
2007). In addition, during the 3 years to 2007, China reduced the annual export from 48,500 tons rare earth
oxide (REO(to 43,500 tons REO (Roskill, 2007), suggesting that the Chinese government has developed a
policy of resource conservation in recent years. Meanwhile, it is expected that the demand for Nd magnets
will grow further. When demand for Nd magnets increases, it is inevitable that the resource shortage of Dy
will become obvious, and exploration and develop 2008 The Author
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ment of new heavy rare earth ore deposits will be

needed urgently.

5. Role of heavy rare earth elements in

Nd magnets
In this section, the reason why Dy is necessary to Nd
magnets and why Dy cannot be substituted by other
elements or other REE will be described. Two of the
most important physical indexes of the magnetic properties of magnets, are residual flux density (Br) and coercive force (Hc). Br indicates the degree of the strength
of magnetic force, and coercive force expresses the resistance or heat resistance of the magnets. For excellent
magnets, both of these indexes should be high, but it is
difficult to satisfy both: the stronger magnetic force results in lower heat tolerance, and higher heat tolerance
results in weaker magnetic force; that is, the two characteristics have an inverse relationship. The situation
is illustrated in Figure 9. The horizontal axis indicates
the coercive force and the vertical axis indicates
the strength of magnetic force Br; the square shapes represent the range of magnetic properties of Nd magnets.
When using magnets, strong magnetic force is the
most desirable, so it is desirable to use the products on
the left side of Figure 9. There exists, however, a restriction on heat resistance, so it is required to select the
magnets having a coercive force strong enough to satisfy the requirement of heat resistance. If coercive force
is not high enough, magnet characteristics will be degraded during use. For automobile and industrial motors, requirements for heat resistance are extremely
strict, and thus the Nd magnets that have a coercive
force of 20 kOe, as illustrated in the ellipse on the right
side of Figure 9, are generally used for this purpose.

Fig. 9
Properties of Nd magnets. HDD, hard disk drive.

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T. Minowa

the metallographic structure of the magnet. Crystal

grains of 20 m in average particle diameter are observed in the Nd2Fe14B1 intermetallic compound.
It is known that the mechanism of occurrence of coercivity in such a structure is of the domain nucleation
type. The mechanism of domain nucleation coercivity is
based on the concept that reverse magnetic domain occurs by nuclear formation from the grain boundary,
where the coercive force of magnets is weakest, and magnetization reversal proceeds. The formula of coercive
force at this moment is derived qualitatively from the
fundamental magnetic physical quantity of the R2Fe14B1
intermetallic compounds and is expressed as follows.
Fig. 10
Crystal structure of Nd2Fe14B1 compound.

The role of Dy is to improve coercive force, that is, to

increase the heat resistance index. Although Dy is not
contained in the leftmost product in Figure 9, it is
added to all the other Nd magnet products on the right
side. In fact, Nd is decreased and Dy is added, so it is
Dy substitution. The amount of substitution is around
30% of Nd content at the maximum.
R2Fe14B1 intermetallic compound generates the magnetic properties of Nd magnets. This R represents various REE. In the case of the Nd magnet, R is mainly Nd,
and some of the Nd is substituted by Pr or Dy. The
crystal structure of R2Fe14B1 intermetallic compounds
is shown in Figure 10.
Nd magnet is the aggregate of microcrystals of the
Nd2Fe14B1 intermetallic compounds. Figure 11 shows

Hc Ha Ne Ms

(1)

and Ne are positive coefficients 1 attributable to metal

structure, Ha is magnetic anisotropy of the crystal, and Ms
is a magnetic physical quantity of R2Fe14B1 called saturation magnetization. According to Equation 1, the coercive
force Hc becomes large when Ha of R2Fe14B1 intermetallic
compounds is large and Ms of these compounds is small.
The measured Ha and Ms of R2Fe14B1 intermetallic compound are listed in Table 2 (Sagawa, 1985).
Table 2 shows that Ha of only Dy and Tb is larger
than that of Nd. With regard to the compounds for
which Ha has not been given, their magnetic structures
form different intermetallic compounds and therefore
Ha cannot be defined.
Pr may be added to Nd magnets for such reasons as
diluting Nd, because the Ha and Ms of Pr and Nd are
almost the same. With regard to Dy and Tb, it is favorable to increase the coercive force described in Equation 1 because Ms also becomes smaller. When
substitution is too high, however, Ms decreases and
therefore the magnetic force of the magnets is reduced. The quantity of substitution of Dy and Tb is
Table 2
Ha and Ms of R2Fe14B1 compounds

Fig. 11
Metallography of sintered Nd magnet. Bar,

50 m.

420

Compound

Ms (T)

Ha (MA m-1)

Y2Fe14B1
Ce2Fe14B1
Pr2Fe14B1
Nd2Fe14B1
Sm2Fe14B1
Gd2Fe14B1
Tb2Fe14B1
Dy2Fe14B1
Ho2Fe14B1
Er2Fe14B1
Tm2Fe14B1
Lu2Fe14B1

1.42
1.17
1.56
1.6
1.52
0.893
0.703
0.712
0.807
0.899
0.925
1.183

1.59
2.39
6.93
5.33

2
17.51
11.94
5.97

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Rare earth magnet

determined according to consideration of the production costs. Around 19 wt% of Dy is added; the sufficient additive quantity of Tb is less than half of the Dy
quantity because the effect of Tb on increasing coercive force is approximately twofold that of Dys effect. Tb, however, is extremely rare and expensive
because it is also used in fluorescent materials, so Tb
is used only on special occasions. If Tb is supplied
sufficiently and the price is low, then it would be used
in preference to Dy because its effect on coercive force
is greater.
In the present paper the reason why the magnetic
properties in R2Fe14B1 intermetallic compounds differ
according to the kind of REE has not been discussed.
This is because the explanation is based on solid state
physics, and is therefore beyond the scope of this paper.
To summarize, when Nd magnets are used for automobile and industrial motors, Dy must be added
in order to retain practical coercive force. This is the
current requirement in the present magnet industry.

6. Prospect for future magnet

development
If new magnets other than Nd magnets are developed, or if innovative technological development
makes Dy and Tb unnecessary, resource exploration
will be useless. Trends in the future development of
permanent magnets and in the current development
of magnetic property improvement are discussed in
this section.
Figure 12 summarizes the history of permanent magnet development. Since the 20th century, research into
and development of permanent magnets have become
serious, and practical magnet materials including Alnico, Ferrite, SmCo and NdFeB have been developed.
Because each material was developed within an interval of 2030 years, and 25 years have already passed
since NdFeB was invented, it is said that new material
will be invented in the near future.
Looking back on the history, however, it is understood that the present situation is different from the
past one. Figure 12 describes the properties of the
current magnet materials, but there are many materials that are not shown in Figure 12. They are the materials that were expected to be excellent magnet
materials, but which did not become main industry
materials for various reasons. Examples of these materials are MnBi, MnAlC, FeCrCo, R2Fe17N1 and
nano-composite magnets. The 20th century was an
era in which new research topics were proposed, and
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work on the development of magnetic properties

was continued. This is different to the present situation. In those days, there were many topics on magnets and many people were working in magnet
research. In contrast, now there are fewer new research projects on magnets because the assumption
is that nothing further can be done in magnet development. Many researchers admit that the Nd magnet
is the final and best magnet that can be achieved.
Although it is not possible to assert that no new
magnets will ever be invented, the present situation
differs from the past in that the majority of the
research work has now been done.
Assuming that new magnet development has a minimal chance of success, are there any possibilities that
Dy and Tb will become unnecessary or their usage will
be decreased? At present the development of alternative materials to Dy and Tb is being promoted as a national project by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry of Japan. The potential shortage of minor
metals such as Dy and Tb for Nd magnets is regarded
as a national crisis. In addition, our research group recently reported on a grain boundary diffusion alloying
method that applies rare earth compound to the magnet surface and diffuses Dy or Tb into magnet through
the grain boundary (Nakamura et al., 2005; Hirota et al.,
2006). This new technique has become a focus of attention because it can reduce the additive quantity of Dy
and Tb. These technological developments slightly reduce the level of Dy and Tb needed, but they do not
eliminate them completely.
Since Nd magnets were invented, research has focused on the reduction of Dy and Tb, directly or indirectly. This research has gone on for approximately

Fig. 12
Progress in development of permanent magnets.

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T. Minowa

20 years but a fundamental solution has not been

found.

7. Conclusion
The energy product of mass-produced Nd magnets,
which was around 35 MGOe in 1985, has improved to 54
MGOe at present. Meanwhile, the cost has been reduced
by improvements in production engineering, and the
production of Nd magnets has increased drastically. In
the early period, computer HDD and small motors were
the driving force of Nd magnet development. Recently, the
issues of energy and the environment have stimulated
the expansion of applications. Usage in air conditioners
and automobile will expand this even more, but the
supply capacity of the resources will not satisfy demand.
There is the possibility that a deficiency of heavy rare
earth resources will occur if the huge expansion
continues. Therefore, exploration and development of
heavy rare earth ore deposits are urgent necessities.
If the resources problem is solved successfully, the age
of Nd magnets will begin in earnest. Currently we are
only at the starting point. It is hoped that the use of the
Nd magnet will grow healthily and steadily in the future.

422

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my colleagues at Magnetic
Materials Research Center, Shin-Etsu Chemical, for
their kind assistance. I also wish to thank Dr Shunso
Ishihara of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
for his encouragement.

References
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Coercive enhancement by the grain boundary diffusion process to Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets. IEEE Trans. Magn., 42,
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Nakamura, H., Hirota, K., Shimao, M., Minowa, T. and
Honshima. M. (2005) Magnetic properties of extremely small
Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets, IEEE Trans. Magn., 41, 38443846.
Roskill (2007) The economics of rare earth and yttrium, 13th edn.
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Sagawa, M. (1985) Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet materials.
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Wu, C-Y., Huang, D-H. and Guo, Z-X. (1990) REE geochemistry
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