Course on Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Value Chain in Stockholm
The second event of the course on permanent magnet value chain was held in central Stockholm at the beginning of June 2025. The Stockholm area was chosen since it is a historical place where the first mineral containing rare earth elements was discovered.
Gadolinite (ytterbite), Y2FeBe2Si2O10
This mineral is called Ytterbite. The name is given after the village Ytterby located close to Stockholm. At this place, in 1787, the Swedish army lieutenant Carl Axel Arrhenius found a unique black stone for his mineral collection. Later, he gave the stone to his friend Johan Gadolin, a professor at the University of Åbo. In 1794 Johan Gadolin performed the chemical analysis of the stone and found that the mineral contains among others a previously unknown “earth”, which he called Yttrium earth after the name of the village. Since that time, a more than 100-year history of the successive discovery of all 17 rare earth elements began.
Trip to Ytterby quarry
Ytterby is located on Resarö island in Vaxholm Municipality in the Stockholm archipelago. The black stone, which was found here by Arrhenius, contained 9 newly discovered rare earth elements. 4 of them got their name in the Periodic Table after this village: Yttrium (#39), Terbium (#65), Erbium (#68) and Ytterbium (#70).
Course participants head along Yttrium street towards the quarry.
A journey into the past, into the world of Swedish history.
Up to the hill.
Traces on the rock due to radioactive decay.
The rock has an increased radioactivity level. Uranium and Thorium are often associated elements in the rare earth containing ores.
Old mining facilities in Ytterby.
Basic knowledge on magnetism of rare earth elements is important for better understanding of the whole permanent magnet value chain. In the photo, the coordinator and course responsible at KTH gives a lecture on introduction to magnetism.
Magnet manufacturing is a complex process that consists of many stages. Understanding the importance of each production stage and its influence on the quality of final magnets is one of the key priorities of training.
The lectures on advanced methods of magnet production.
One of the key applications of magnets is electric motors. Physical principles of motor operation are an integral part of the course. KTH professor explains complex topics in a pedagogical way.
Senior scientist from Bosch GmbH gives a presentation on research about magnetic materials and technologies for e-mobility.
One of the course attendees from Rarearth, Italy, presents company’s activities in the field of permanent magnet recycling.
The teaching module about exploration and mining of Rare Earth elements was presented by the teaching team from University of Oviedo.
Here we discuss a list of topics for the reports. Students who want to acquire 4 HCTS credits need to submit a report in addition to passing the quizzes.
State-of-the-art in the Rare Earth permanent magnet research is presented by the teaching team from University of Oviedo.
ISMC, Iberian Sustainable Mining Cluster, is our communication and dissemination partner.
A training module on recycling of rare earth permanent magnets was prepared by the research team from Monolithos Catalysis & Recycling Ltd.
Introductory lecture for Life Cycle Assessment, LCA.
LCA case studies are presented by the Head of Sustainability and general Manager of MNLT Innovations, Monolithos Catalysis & Recycling Ltd.
Project manager from RISE Research Institute of Sweden gives a presentation about some projects related to circularity, LCA and sustainability that are in the focus of RISE’s activities.
The lecture on environmental impact of magnets was given by Project manager at ICAMCyl Foundation.
Separation of magnets from the scrap is one of the projects in which RISE participates.
This course was made possible thanks to an amazing team of researchers from the ExpSkills-REM project and financial support of EIT RawMaterials.
