NdFeB magnets – the strongest permanent magnets in the world are essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, medical devices, robots, and defense systems. But the path from raw rare earth ore in the ground to a finished NdFeB magnet is long, technical, and often misunderstood. This blog explains the entire process in clear, simple language.

Mining the Ore
The process begins with rare earth ore found in minerals such as monazite, bastnäsite, or allanite. These rocks contain small amounts of valuable rare earth elements like neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy), and terbium (Tb). The ore is mined, crushed, and prepared for further processing.

Producing Rare Earth Concentrate
After crushing, the ore goes through physical separation methods – usually flotation, gravity separation, or magnetic separation. This step removes most of the waste rock and increases the rare earth content. The result is a rare earth concentrate, which is the feed material for chemical processing.

Cracking the Concentrate
The concentrate is then chemically “cracked.” This means the mineral structure is broken down using heat or chemical treatment so the rare earths can dissolve into a liquid solution. This step is complex and, depending on the minerals involved, may require handling radioactive elements like uranium and thorium safely.

Separating Individual Rare Earths
Once the concentrate is cracked, the rare earths are dissolved together in a solution. To separate them into individual elements, the material goes through a process called solvent extraction (SX). This system, which involves hundreds of stages, gradually isolates each rare earth element – such as Nd, Pr, Dy, and Tb – into high-purity oxide powders.

These oxides are the basic raw materials used to produce rare earth metals.

Metallization: Converting Oxides into Metals
Rare earth oxides cannot be used directly to make magnets. They must first be converted into pure metals. This is done by removing the oxygen from the oxide using a reducing agent such as calcium or magnesium in a sealed furnace. The reducing agent binds to oxygen, leaving behind neodymium or praseodymium metal.

This step requires careful handling, high temperatures, and advanced equipment. REalloys’ HF-free method makes this stage cleaner and safer compared to traditional hydrofluoric acid–based routes.

Alloying the Metals
To create NdFeB magnet material, the rare earth metals are melted together with iron (Fe) and boron (B). Sometimes a small amount of dysprosium or terbium is added for high-temperature performance. The melt is cast into thin flakes using a process called strip casting. These flakes are then crushed into a fine powder.

Pressing and Aligning the Powder
The fine NdFeB powder is placed into a mold and pressed into shape. During pressing, a strong magnetic field is applied to align the microscopic particles in the desired direction. This alignment is crucial – it determines the final strength of the magnet.

Sintering
The aligned powder compact is heated at high temperatures in a controlled environment. This “sintering” process fuses the particles together into a dense, solid block while preserving their magnetic alignment. After sintering, the material has the hardness and strength of a true magnet, but it still needs finishing.

Shaping, Machining, and Coating
The sintered magnet block is cut, ground, or machined into the required shape – often blocks, arcs, rings, or custom parts for motors and generators. Because NdFeB materials can corrode easily, the magnets are coated with nickel, epoxy, or other protective layers.

Magnetization
In the final step, the shaped and coated magnet is placed in a very strong magnetic field. This permanently locks the magnetic domains into alignment and turns the part into a fully functional NdFeB magnet, ready for use in electric motors, wind turbines, robotics, electronics, or defense systems.

Summary of the Entire Process: Ore → Concentrate → Cracking → Separation (Oxides) → Metallization (Metals) → Alloying → Powder → Pressing → Sintering → Machining → Magnetizing

Or more simply:

Rock → Purified Material → Metal → Magnet