Urban Mining Company to Build Lab & Prototyping Facility in Texas : Closed Loop Rare Earth Magnet Recycling Firms Secures Funds in Austin
Austin, Texas based rare earth magnet recycling specialist, Urban Mining Company, has completed a $25M Series A financing for the construction and operation of a magnet recycling and manufacturing facility at its headquarters.
The company said that its patented Magnet-to-Magnet recycling approach takes scrap rare earth magnets and reprocesses them into new, high-performance magnets.
"The magnetic properties of our magnets are designed to customer specifications," explained Dr. Miha Zakotnik, COO of Urban Mining. "The final shape of our magnets is not dependent on the feedstock that we use, and our patented Grain-Boundary Engineering process gives us complete control over the final composition, grade and magnetic performance of our products."
The company said that it will use the Series A funding to build and operate a manufacturing facility, capable of producing 250 tons of sintered NdFeB rare earth magnets per year within the next two years. Capacity will be expanded to 1000 tons per year in a second phase of operation.
"We have worked hard to secure scrap rare-earth materials to support our recycling process because Urban Mining's products are already in high demand for green and high-tech applications such as electric motors, wind turbines, and electric vehicles," said Peter Afiuny, executive vice president.
"Our goal is to create a closed-loop supply chain that delivers a high performance product in a market where price volatility and material supply has threatened the development of green technology," added.
Urban Mining Company said that it has planned early delivery of its laboratory and prototyping capabilities including state-of-the-art equipment for materials processing and advanced property and microstructure analysis he. The laboratory is expected to be operational by the end of Summer 2016.
"This lab facility will provide us with prototyping capabilities for our partners and customers," said Zakotnik.
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