Critical minerals recycling

Q: Can critical minerals be recycled?

Almost all of them can be, technically. The problem is economics and collection: many critical minerals are used in tiny amounts in complex products, so recovering them costs more than mining new metal. Metals used in bulk, such as copper, nickel and cobalt, are recycled at high rates.

Q: Which critical minerals are recycled the least?

Lithium, the rare earth elements, gallium, germanium, indium, tantalum, beryllium and tellurium all have end-of-life recycling rates below 1% in the UNEP International Resource Panel's assessment.

Q: How much can recycling reduce mining?

The IEA's 2024 analysis of critical minerals recycling estimates that, with strong policy, recycling could reduce the need for new mine supply of critical minerals by 25 to 40% by 2050, mainly from batteries.

Q: How are lithium-ion batteries recycled?

Batteries are discharged, shredded and sieved into black mass, a powder holding the lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. Smelting (pyrometallurgy) or acid leaching (hydrometallurgy) then separates the metals into salts that can go into new batteries.

Q: What are the EU battery recycling targets?

The EU Batteries Regulation requires recyclers to recover 90% of the cobalt, nickel and copper and 50% of the lithium from waste batteries by the end of 2027, rising to 95% and 80% by the end of 2031. From 2031, new EV and industrial batteries must contain minimum recycled shares of cobalt, lithium and nickel.

Q: What is the EU recycling benchmark for critical raw materials?

The EU Critical Raw Materials Act sets a benchmark that recycling should supply 25% of the EU's annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030.

Copper, nickel and cobalt are already recycled at scale. Lithium, the rare earths, gallium and indium almost never are. Here is which critical minerals get recycled, why so many don't, how battery recycling works, and what the new rules require.

Short answer

Most base and precious metals are recycled well: 18 metals, including copper, nickel, cobalt, tin, gold and platinum, have end-of-life recycling rates above 50% (UNEP). Many critical minerals are below 1%, including lithium, the rare earths, gallium, germanium, indium and tantalum, because they are used in tiny amounts spread through products that are hard to collect and take apart. The IEA estimates recycling could cut the need for new mining by 25 to 40% by 2050.

18metals recycled above 50% at end of life (UNEP)

<1%end-of-life recycling of lithium, rare earths, gallium, indium

25–40%less new mining needed by 2050 with strong recycling (IEA)

25%EU benchmark for recycled supply of strategic raw materials by 2030

Which critical minerals are recycled

End-of-life recycling rate: the share of a metal in discarded products that is actually recovered and used again. The split is stark.

Recycled at end of life: over 50%

Aluminium Chromium Cobalt Copper Gold Iron Lead Manganese Niobium Nickel Palladium PlatinumRheniumRhodium Silver Tin Titanium Zinc

Recycled at end of life: under 1%

Lithium Rare earths (all 17)Gallium Germanium Indium Tantalum BerylliumTelluriumZirconiumScandiumYttriumSeleniumBismuthHafniumThalliumBoronArsenicBariumStrontium

UNEP International Resource Panel, Recycling Rates of Metals (2011), the most complete global assessment; rates have improved for some battery metals since. Chips link to each mineral's story.

Why so little is recycled

Tiny amounts, spread thin. A phone holds milligrams of gallium, indium and tantalum. Collecting millions of phones to recover them costs more than mining.
Locked into alloys and mixtures. Rare earths in a magnet or tantalum in a capacitor are bonded to other metals and need dismantling before chemistry can even start.
Still in use. Demand for lithium has grown so fast that most of it is in batteries still on the road. Recycled supply arrives with a lag of 10 to 15 years.
Exported or lost. Electronic waste is often shipped abroad, landfilled or burned, and the metals leave the system.

How battery recycling works

Batteries are where recycling of critical minerals is growing fastest. Press Play to follow a battery back to raw material.

The rules: EU recovery targets for batteries

The EU Batteries Regulation sets how much of each metal recyclers must recover from waste batteries, and from 2031 requires new EV and industrial batteries to contain at least 16% recycled cobalt, 6% lithium and 6% nickel (rising in 2036).

Cobalt, nickel, copper90% by 2027

95% by 2031

Lithium50% by 2027

80% by 2031

Material recovery targets for waste batteries, EU Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 71 and Annex XII.

The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act adds a benchmark of 25% of annual consumption of strategic raw materials from recycling by 2030. Which minerals each government counts as critical is on the critical minerals page, with the EU list and the US list.

Recycling and mining

Recycling does not replace mining any time soon: demand is growing faster than scrap becomes available. It does change where supply comes from, and cuts the water, waste and carbon of new metal. For the impacts of mining lithium itself, see are lithium mines bad for the environment?, and for where the battery metals are mined, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Questions

Can critical minerals be recycled?